


100 Themes of Leslie & Ben

by SakuraBlossomStorm



Category: Parks and Recreation
Genre: 100 Themes, Angst, Anxiety, Crush, Cuddles, Cuddling, Date Night, Drabble, Drunk Sex, Episode Related, F/M, Father-Daughter Relationship, Father-Son Relationship, First Date, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluffiness, Friendship, Hotel Sex, Love, Menstruation, Mental Illness, Mention of blood, Pre-Relationship, Pregnancy, Pregnant Cuddles, Secret Relationship, Sleepy Cuddles, Smut, Sneaking Around, Triplet Cuddles, Triplets, parenting, post-sex cuddles, vacation sex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-23
Updated: 2017-03-13
Packaged: 2018-08-10 15:41:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 100
Words: 59,595
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7851151
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SakuraBlossomStorm/pseuds/SakuraBlossomStorm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>100 short drabbles of Leslie and Ben, based on the 100 Themes challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Hi all! I've decided to do the 100 Themes Challenge! I tried this like 8 years ago on FF.Net and got to like chapter 2... hopefully I'll be more successful with this!
> 
> The aim of the game is to write 100 short drabbles based around a certain word, there are variations of this online so take a look if you are interested in your own!
> 
> Kudos and comments make me supper happy and fuel my writing fire! 
> 
> Please feel free to follow my tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog.
> 
> And with that, enjoy chapter one: Introduction.

“You were an ass!”

“I was not, I was doing my job”.

“You could have been more like Chris” Leslie said as she leaned back into Ben’s arms, “He was so positive about the whole thing”.

“Yeah because that was how we worked best, he’d gear everyone up and I’d come in and do the hard work,” Ben explained, welcoming her further into his arms. “It was a tried and tested method, worked every time”.

“It didn’t work on the Parks Department” Leslie quipped with a smirk.

“Uh yeah it did, we managed to cut the budget without you noticing” Ben told her.

“The only thing that mattered to me was that my friends got to keep their jobs” Leslie explained.

Ben smiled down at her, “And that’s what I love about you, how selfless you are”.

They had no idea how they had gotten onto the subject of when they first met, it just happened. They had been talking for hours now about the Freddie Spaghetti concert and the day Chris told Leslie that the government was re-instated after being shut down, it was nice going back to old memories and laughing about how hostile they used to be towards each other.

“I remember seeing you walk in that day” Leslie said, barely containing her laughter, “You looked so meek and quiet, like a little shy Badger coming out of its burrow”.

“Because I was there to do my job, I didn’t know at the end of it all I was going to come out of there with a wife” Ben said as his finger circled around Leslie’s wedding ring.

“What did you think of me when we first met?” She asked, craning her neck around to look into Ben’s eyes.

Ben paused for a moment, thinking hard, then he let out a low laugh, “A pain in the ass”.

“No you didn’t!” Leslie cried out, lightly slapping his arm.

“I did!” Ben laughed, “I remember asking you where there was waste in the department and you started defending it, I knew straight away I was going to have trouble with you”.

“I was scared” Leslie said, resting her head on his shoulder, “I thought you were going to cut so much”.

“We made it work” Ben said, kissing the top of her head.

The two stayed there in a comfortable silence, Leslie breathing in Ben’s lingering aftershave on his neck while he nuzzled into her blonde curls.

“Hey’ She asked again after a while, “Did you think back then that we would be married one day?”

Ben’s arms tightened around her, pulling as close as humanly possible into his chest, Leslie let out a contented moan and nipped gently at his neck.

“I didn’t…but I think deep down something in me knew we’d be together one day”. He answered.

Leslie closed her eyes in bliss, “I thought that too”.


	2. Love

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the kudos! It means so much to me!
> 
> Here is chapter two, it's a bit more of a narrative but I hope you like it all the same!
> 
> Please comment and send your kudos, also feel free to follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog

They had never been in love before. Sure they had been in relationships where they thought they were in love but they never knew what it felt like until they found each other.

Ben realised he was in love with Leslie the day of the Chamber of Commerce, how she had fought through tooth and nail to get to where she was. She was not going to let the flu ruin her chances.

Ben had prepared to take the meeting in her place, albeit he was a little hurt when she turned up, assuming that she didn’t trust him. But he let her go up on stage, he watched as her face creased as she tried to make heads or tails of her speech, then he watched as her flu disappeared, a smile spread across her face and she held her head high as she delivered her speech.

Ben was amazed, this wonderful woman who was trembling with sickness earlier just tossed that aside like it was nothing and gave one of the best speeches he had ever heard.

His heart beat wildly all the way through, he was nervous, concerned but yet wanting to hear every single word that she spoke, once the speech was over, he gave her the loudest applause possible.

She was Leslie Knope, a force not to be reckoned with.

His heart carried on beating all through the rest of the day, during the question and answer session after the speech, when he watched the queue grow to sign to participate in the festival and it beat when he got home and prepared his family’s chicken soup to take to her.

She snuck into his heart and stayed there, the affection growing every day he saw her.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leslie took a little longer to realise, she had been so preoccupied with the festival that she didn’t notice the signs. Not until the day of April and Andy’s wedding.

She watched as the two said their vows and a small pang ran through her, Ben had told her earlier that day that he was torn between going back to Indianapolis or staying in Pawnee, she had told him to make a pros and cons list, as she walked away she cursed herself for not telling him to stay, she wanted him to stay with her.

Andy and April just seemed to know what was right, could she ever have that feeling for someone? A feeling so strong that the very thought of being without that person hurt?

Then she saw Ben walking towards her and her heart could have burst out of her chest. Everything she didn’t say earlier circled her brain like a hawk; she needed him in her life to survive.

“You should stay here,” She said when he walked over, “Don’t go back to Indianapolis…you should stay here”.

There wasn’t much of an argument but it piqued his interest.

“You think” He asked, arching an eyebrow.

“Yes” She answered confidently, “It’s a great city here…y’know and…there are great people and you’ve made a lot of friends”.

Ben made a noise that sounded like ‘yeah’; Leslie swallowed back her nerves and carried on.

“I mean, what are you gonna do? Go back to your old job and hack up people’s budgets” She said with a gentle laugh, “Stay here, help us build something”.

“I already accepted the job” Ben interrupted, he had tried to play it coy and not tell her what job he took, but the smirk on his face betrayed him. Leslie almost burst with happiness.

“I’m…er…I’m staying here” He said, nodding at her.

“That’s great” Leslie said, unable to hide her beaming smile.

There she realised in that moment that she was in love with him, what followed might have been a bumpy ride, but a year or so later they ended up in the right place.


	3. Light

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> So I officially broke my record for the last time I did this, here's chapter three!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy it, please comment and send your kudos!

She was prettiest in the morning light, he had decided.

There was a gap in the curtain letting the morning sun pour through and onto their bed, the sunlight danced off Leslie’s face, already complementing the pregnancy glow she had. Her rhythmic breathing echoing hypnotically in Ben’s ears.

Ben rarely got to see Leslie in this state but they finally found something that kept her in bed past 5am on the weekends, being six months pregnant wore her out and she found herself sleeping a lot.

It was 9am on a Sunday morning and she hadn’t so much as stirred in her sleep, she was dead to the world. 

Ben studied her face as she slept, the faint freckles on her nose, her long eyelashes, all the little features he missed on a day-to-day basis because she was always so energetic. He loved his manic, bubbly wife, but sleepy, cuddly, pregnant Leslie was nice too, it meant he had some peaceful mornings like this where he could watch his wife sleeping in the morning rays and remember how much he loved her.

He moved a blonde curl out of her face and caressed Leslie’s face, her skin was silky smooth, she moaned about being pregnant, the stretchmarks, the swollen ankles, but she had to admit, her skin seemed to react so well to it and was incredibly soft and glowing.

Ben reached down and pecked her lips, as much as he loved being in bed with her, they had plans to paint the nursery and needed to get up.

Leslie’s eyes slowly flickered open and she groaned when the sunlight hit her eyes, “What time is it” She croaked.

“9am” Ben answered and she groaned again.

“Crap I overslept” She sighed as she rubbed her eyes with her hands.

“You can’t oversleep, you’re pregnant, you can sleep as much as you want” Ben said as his hand travelled to her large belly, he gave it a rub and smiled when he felt a kick against his palm, one of their triplets saying ‘Good Morning’.

Leslie closed her eyes and yawned, “Ok…maybe five more minutes then” She murmured sleepily.

Ben couldn’t argue with that and wrapped his arms around her, “Ok, five more minutes” He said, closing his eyes.


	4. Dark

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Aaand the first of many smutty chapters.
> 
> Comments and Kudos are much appreciated!

“Crap on a light bulb!!”

Leslie and Ben had been strategising for the recall vote when all the lights in the house shut off. Ben’s laptop that had been on the blink and had to constantly have the power cord plugged in shut off, losing all of their work for the evening.

Ben stood up and fumbled his way in the darkness over to the window, “The entire street’s out, must be a power outage” He reported.

Trying to make the best out of a bad situation he shrugged and said “Ah well, I guess that’s our cue to stop working for tonight”.

Leslie, who was still mourning the loss of all the hard work they had done, looked up at him, “Yeah but what now? I’ve got a press conference tomorrow about the recall vote and half of my speech is gone!”

Ben, who was using the light from his phone as a make shift lamp, was now in the kitchen trying to find the candles, “You’ll be fine, you always land on your feet, this won’t be the first time you’ve had to make a speech up on the spot”.

“True, but this is so much more important, I could be recalled in a few months, I need to be prepared” She started scrambling around for a pad of paper, “Maybe we can write it out, I’m pretty sure I remember most of it anyway, we can save this”.

Leslie had been so stressed out recently it made Ben a little relieved to have this power cut, he lit some candles and took some over to the coffee table, where Leslie was frantically writing her speech out on a newspaper.

“Leslie” He said in a sing-song voice, tugging her arms away from the table, “Take a break, this is the universe telling us to relax tonight”.

He didn’t know whether it was the scented candles around them or the flickering shadows dancing off her face, but Ben found himself pushing his lips against her and wrapping his arms around her.

Leslie tried to squirm away in protest, “But tomorrow, my speech-.”

“Can wait” Ben finished for her, “Tonight you need to relax”.

“I can’t relax when there’s no lights on and no internet and –.”

“No, babe. Relaaaaax” Ben said suggestively.

“Oh!” Leslie spluttered, her eyes widening, “Relax”.

The setting was pretty romantic, she thought as Ben lightly pushed her down onto the sofa, his lips running down her neck and sending shivers down her spine, she quite liked being seduced in the dark of a power outage.

“You are going to do great tomorrow” Ben murmured as he lifted her top up, hands gripping her back to snap her bra off.

“I’m going to do great tomorrow” Leslie repeated, breathlessly.

“You are going to win this recall vote,” he growled low in his throat as his teeth grazed her nipple.

Leslie gasped out, her hands wrapping around his back, “I’m going to…” the rest of her sentence was lost to a moan she had been stifling.

Oh yes, sex in the dark was better than late night speech writing any day.


	5. Seeking Solace

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's Bank Holiday Weekend here in the UK and what have I do today? Napped and ate.
> 
> Ah well - hope you all enjoy this chapter! Remember to comment and kudos!
> 
> With this I've dabbled with the idea that Ben might have the hints of a mental illness so its a little darker than the other chapters, nonetheless I hope you like it!
> 
> This takes place early in season three, just after 'Soulmates'

Sometimes City Hall just gets too crowded.

Sometimes Ben found himself drowning in paperwork and angry phone calls from departments who had just had their budgets cut. Days like this he found himself burying his head in his hands wishing to go home or to call in sick.

It was days like this he found himself reaching for his phone and texting a familiar face, he put on an out of office, saying he would be gone for the rest of the day, grabbed his coat and left.

A short trip up the elevator and he was on the second floor, there in front of him sat on the same bench he had been coming to for weeks now with two coffees in her hand, was Leslie.

A smile spread across her face when she saw him arrive and she stretched out her hand, handing him one of the coffees. “Hey, come on, let’s talk about it”.

Ben found himself texting Leslie to come and meet him by the wildflower mural on the second floor a lot now, especially on his bad days. Sometimes he just needed someone who always had a positive outlook on life to help him with his messy, fucked up life.

He text her when he felt like he couldn’t breath at his desk and just needed to hear a funny story of what Jerry did today or sometimes when he had gotten off the phone with his Dad and needed to vent about all the awful things he had said about his Mother.

Today he just needed to get away from his desk, he loved this job but sometimes the work was just too much. Ben found his palms growing sweaty and his mind growing faint. He found himself taking fast short breaths and just needed to move and get away. 

Chris would never be of any help, he would just make him one of his smoothies that would never help and would just left a horrible aftertaste in Ben’s already dry throat. Sometimes, he just needed Leslie by him to calm him down.

“You know I’m always here for you” Leslie always said on these days, “Like, even if you just need someone to sit next to you while you sit there quietly, I’m your girl”.

Ben gave a sad smile and sipped his coffee, he probably shouldn’t be drinking that right now given his anxiety but he couldn’t turn down something that she had brought him.

“I know” He murmured, “I just hate burdening people with this stuff y’know? Half the time people say ‘just get over it’, never seems to help though”.

“You could never burden me with this” Leslie said softly, resting a hand on his shoulder, “Plus you know I love a good trip to the second floor”.

Ben laughed, “I know you do”.

Sometimes, he just needed some Leslie Knope to give him a better outlook on life.


	6. Break Away

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you everyone for the comments and kudos! It really means so much to me to be able to hear back that people are enjoying this!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy chapter six - Break Free!

“What made you leave?” Leslie asked one day, she walked into the living room to see Ben looking at old photos of his family, pictures of him and his two siblings in their garden back in Minnesota.

Ben looked up at Leslie, “Leave where? My parents’ home? Well I couldn’t be one of those guys who lives in their Mom’s basement”.

“No, why did you leave Minnesota?” Leslie asked, sitting next to him and taking the photo from his hands.

Ben arched his eyebrow, “Isn’t it obvious? After the whole IceTown thing I wasn’t exactly the most welcome person there”.

“Well yeah, but you just left the whole state, it’s not like you moved to a different town” Leslie said, crossing her legs on the sofa.

Ben shrugged, “There was nothing left for me there”.

He turned to face her; he never really talked about this kind of stuff to anyone before.

“I wasn’t happy” He admitted, “My parents divorce was hard, I’d spend the days listening to my Mom bitch about my Dad, and my Dad telling me to never find someone like my Mom. At this point my Brother had gotten married and moved out so they didn’t really bother him with their problems and my sister was going through her moody teenage stage so she barely spoke to them, everything just kind of fell on me”.

“I had no idea” Leslie said, placing a hand on his knee, “We don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to”.

“No its fine” Ben said, placing his hand on top of hers.

“I also didn’t have many friends there, all my friends at college lived in different states so it was hard to visit them” Ben carried on.

“How old were you when you moved to Indianapolis?” She asked.

Ben paused and thought, he rubbed the back of his head, “Wow…I guess like 22, around about when I graduated from college”.

Leslie gasped, “That’s so young”.

Ben nodded, “I had my degree, I was done in Minnesota, I had my family there and that was it. Nothing else, no one would trust me with a career there, I needed to go away to a state that had never heard of my mistakes, there I could actually learn and gain peoples trust”.

“I needed to break free from Partridge, to get away from Benji the IceTown clown and become Ben, the guy people can trust with their budgets.

He gave a gentle smile and pulled Leslie closer to him, “Anyway, if I stayed there I never would have met you”.

Leslie beamed and nuzzled into his chest, “I’m glad you left Partridge”.

“Me too” Ben said as he took in the scent of Leslie’s recently shampooed hair, “me too”.


	7. Heaven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 7! I've been on a bit of a roll today thanks to a bank holiday here in the UK. It's back to work tomorrow though!
> 
> Hope you all enjoy and remember to comment and kudos!

Ben wasn’t sure what heaven looked like.

He was an atheist so didn’t believe in any of that stuff, he didn’t believe that if you did something good you went to heaven and if you did something bad you went to hell. It was all just stupid to him.

But when he came home after a long day at work to see his beautiful wife and his three wonderful kids, he began to think differently.

Ever since he and Leslie had the triplets their life went from pretty normal to crazy. There were wake up calls at 3am when one child had a nightmare, there were endless amounts of drawings that absolutely had to be posted on the refrigerator or there would be a tantrum and there were plenty of dirty diapers to change.

But it was days like this he cherished the most, when he could walk in, kiss Leslie and lay down on the sofa, he’d get about a minutes peace before the triplets would come over and start climbing all over him, nuzzling against his stubbly cheek and pulling at his tie.

They’d have a family dinner where Leslie and Ben had to convince the children to eat their vegetables and how peas turned into cupcakes. Ben found himself even coaxing Leslie into eating vegetables just to set a good example.

That was usually followed by a group snuggle on the sofa, they’d watch something like Toy Story and Leslie and Ben would have the three children sat around them. 

Wesley was always the first one to fall asleep, he'd usually be tucked in between his parents and would droop off on Ben’s arm. Sonia always insisted she had to sit on Ben’s lap during any TV time, she would then follow, her blonde hair sprawled out over Ben’s shirt. Stephen was always the last to doze off; he would have his legs over Leslie’s lap and his head resting on the sofa’s armrest, usually drooling on it.

They would carry the triplets to their room; Leslie would have Stephen resting on her hip while Ben managed Wesley and Sonia. They would be tucked in without a fuss and would hopefully sleep through the night; both parents usually hoped for no nightmares or wet beds.

This then gave Leslie and Ben time to talk about their day, sometimes with a glass of wine, sometimes with a hot chocolate. Ben would tell her about the new plans his congressional campaign and Leslie would boast proudly about how excited she was about starting her job in the department of Interior in Washington.

Their nights usually ended with a make out session on the couch before they both retired to bed, most nights they would carry on their make out session, a couple times they would be so exhausted they would nod off straight away, either way, Ben was so happy he got to share a bed with Leslie every night.

Ben wasn’t sure what heaven looked like, but he was damn sure nights like this were pretty close.


	8. Innocence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all your lovely comments and kudos so far! I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's super fluffy and cute (well I think so anyway!)
> 
> Feel free to let me know what you think, all comments are welcome!

“Oh Ben, she’s looking at us”.

Ben’s heart swelled about ten sizes as he looked down at the three newborns, the middle baby, swathed in a pale pink blanket opened her tiny eyes and was staring back up at her parents, her two brothers either side of her were still asleep and wrapped in pale blue blankets.

It had been about 4AM when Leslie woke up shrieking that her waters had broken, she was rushed to hospital and immediately taken for her caesarean, they had booked her to go in for it two weeks later, but their triplets were just so keen to see the world they decided they couldn’t wait anymore.

Despite Leslie only being 32 weeks pregnant at the time, they were all healthy and spent a short time in neonatal ward. After that all three were brought to their parents, ready for a lifetime supply of cuddles.

Leslie was recovering from her surgery when the triplets were brought to them, despite still being weak and exhausted, she happily accepted the babies when the nurse asked if she would like to hold them.

The nurse propped a pillow on Leslie’s lap and brought over the newborns one by one. Soon all three were nestled on her lap and fast asleep.

Leslie let a few happy tears seep out of her eyes and Ben, who was perched on the edge of the bed, wrapped his arms around her, wiping her tears away.

“We did it” Leslie spoke quietly after a while; “We got our team”.

Ben nodded, tears welling up in his own eyes, “Yeah, you did amazing,” He said as he kissed his wife’s head, inhaling her blonde locks deeply.

It was then when their baby girl opened her eyes and looked up at her parents for the first time. Both parents stared in awe at the tiny girl and Ben bent down to kiss her tiny forehead.

“So are you made up on the names?” He asked Leslie, who nodded straight away.

“She looks like a Sonia,” Leslie replied.

Ben nodded in agreement, “So which will be Stephen and which will be Wesley?”

Leslie hummed to herself for a moment, “Stephen is on the left, Wesley on the right”.

Ben smiled, “I think so too”.

Stephen then woke up, making a small crying noise that was music to his parents’ ears. Since Leslie’s arms were full Ben leant over, placing his forefinger in the tiny baby’s outstretched hand, Stephen immediately stopped crying and closed his eyes again, his hand clasped around Ben’s fingers firmly.

Ben exhaled and looked back at Leslie, she was beaming at him. “I want to stay like this forever,” She said, looking back at the babies, “They’re so innocent and tiny, I don’t want them going outside”.

“Should we just put them back inside of you like a Kangaroo?”

Leslie snorted, “God no. I’m so excited to not be pregnant anymore, we just got to protect them”.

Ben nodded, “Yeah, none of them are allowed to go into government until they are 40. They have to have boring mundane jobs like-.”

“An accountant?” Leslie cut in, making Ben chuckle softly.

“Like an accountant” He replied as he nuzzled back into her and looked back into Sonia’s innocent, blue eyes.


	9. Drive

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the kudos and the comments! I love reading them! Keep them coming as they are fuel for me!
> 
> Hope you all enjoy this chapter.

“How long will it take to get there?”

“Andy said it took them like 15 hours, but April drives like a lunatic so I’m going to say probably a day and a half”.

It was all very impromptu, Leslie and Ben taking the week off after their engagement to do something, but they had no idea what. Until Andy piped up that they should look at his completed bucket list, from the strange list of ‘making the best grilled cheese’ or ‘starring in an action movie’, there was one that of them wanted to do.

Drive to the Grand Canyon.

They set up the car with plenty of snacks, packed two suitcases and embarked on their trip, they’d stop off at hotels on the way, spend like a day or two at the Canyon and then head back. They had it all planned out, just an exciting, spontaneous road trip.

“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive?” Ben asked from the passenger seat, he had been reading the map trying to find the best route there. 

“I can drive for a bit,” Leslie said as she concentrated on the road, “We can take in in turns, we can swap every hour”.

“Sounds good to me”.

“Ooh I forgot to tell you” Leslie piped up excitedly, “I made some CDs for us, they’re in the glove compartment”.

Ben rummaged around pulled out three CDs, “Please tell me there are no whale sounds on these?” He asked.

Leslie chuckled, “Nope just regular music like –.”

“And no Sarah McLachlan”.

Leslie’s mouth formed a straight line, “There might be one or two songs,” She admitted.

Ben couldn’t help but laugh; “Well I guess it’s better than ‘Learning to Speak Mandarin’”.

It didn’t take long for them to make their first pit stop for breakfast, Leslie was adamant about finding somewhere where she could eat waffles, they stopped at a lonely roadside café and had waffles and coffee, they weren’t as nice as JJ’s but they hit the spot.

Back on the road and Ben took the wheel with Leslie in the passenger seat. Every now and then she would reach around and stroke his leg.

“I’m so glad things worked out since our last road trip,” She murmured to him. 

Ben smirked, “Which one? The one to Indianapolis or the one to Mick Jagger’s abandoned gas station?”

Leslie hummed as she thought, “Both times, Wow I can’t believe how long ago it was since we drove to Indianapolis, I was so worried that something was going to happen and we would both be in trouble”.

“And now we’re engaged” Ben said happily, giving her a quick glance before looking back at the road.

“And now we’re engaged” Leslie repeated, looking down at the beautiful engagement ring around her finger. She circled the gemstone with her thumb and her heart swelled.

The day slowly turned to night and the road trip continued, they couldn’t see any hotels nearby and Leslie wasn’t feeling too tired so she took over for the night. Ben was relining in the passenger seat, his eyes drooping.

“Leslie, would it be a dick move if I went to sleep?” He asked lazily, Leslie smiled and crinkled her nose, that face always made Ben’s heart skip two beats.

“Not at all” She replied, “Go get some sleep, I’ll wake you up after an hour or so”.

“Ok” Ben said as he settled down, using his coat as a blanket, “I love you, Leslie”.

“I love you too,” Leslie said rubbing his knee, “Now get some sleep, Benjamin”.

“Yes, Lesliemin”.

It wasn’t long until he was snoring next to her, he didn’t have a horrible roaring snore, it was more of a loud breathing, but it was super cute.

Leslie turned down the radio, dimming the sounds of ‘REM’, so that Ben could sleep, she always could manage on next to nothing sleep but Ben always needed a good snooze. 

She briefly looked back at the ring on her finger and she sighed, how the hell did she get so lucky to find someone who would drop everything and go on a crazy road trip with her.


	10. Breathe Again

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for the comments and kudos! I hope you enjoy this chapter! 
> 
> This takes place after the 'Smallest Park' episode.

“This is how I feel, how do you feel?”

Everything happened so fast, Leslie closed her eyes briefly in fear that when she opened them Ben would be gone, but instead he was charging towards her, she gasped out as he cupped her cheek with his hand and pushed his lips against hers.

They stayed in the tiny patch of park just kissing each other for a good half an hour, they nibbled each other’s lips and their tongues spiralled around in their mouths. They were getting used to the taste and feel of each other again after months of being apart and wishing they could just hold each other again.

During the months they weren’t together, Leslie’s chest constantly felt tight and she found her breath constantly hitched and shallow, she went to the doctors a couple of times convinced she was having a heart attack but every time she was dismissed, the doctors claiming that she was in perfect condition, albeit her weird sleeping pattern.

And now in this moment with Ben’s lips pressed firmly against hers as if this was the last night of the world, a weird sensation came over her. The muscles in her chest eased and despite the fact she was sure she hadn’t taken a breath in like 5 minutes, she felt like she could finally breathe properly again.

The two slowly pulled away, resting their foreheads against the other, they both panted and the cold air turned their breaths into fog. Leslie’s hands snuck up and rested around Ben’s neck, holding him in place, keeping him from leaving.

“I’m not going anywhere,” Ben whispered into her mouth as he begun kissing her again.

Leslie sighed into him, Ben’s arms wrapped around her small frame and pulled her as physically close as he could.

Finally their kissing ended and Ben stepped back slightly, he kept his arms on her to reassure her that he was here to stay. Leslie was taking slow and steady breaths, tears pouring down her face.

Ben reached over and wiped her eyes for her, “Are you ok?” He asked quietly.

Leslie nodded, “I…I thought you were going to walk away” She admitted.

Ben’s eyes glassed over, “I couldn’t” He said, choking back tears, “I couldn’t do it, I could never leave you, Leslie”.

He pulled her into a warm embrace and rested his head over her shoulder; Leslie nuzzled into his neck and breathed in, taking in his scent. 

It was then when she noticed that the ache in her chest had gone and she was taking in long, deep breaths. 

For the first time in ages she could actually breathe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to follow me on Tumblr @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	11. Memory

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter! I've officially passed the first ten chapters so I am very happy with how this is going so far!
> 
> Please remember to comment and kudos!

Ben stood in a sea of boxes, studying the labels on them. “Ok, so do we really need everything here?” He asked looking down at Leslie who was pulling out several photographs out from one box.

“Yes. They’re memories, Ben. You can’t just throw memories away” Leslie exclaimed.

They were moving things into their new house, Ben had insisted that they went through everything she owned to decide what should be kept and what should be thrown away, but this was proving difficult when Leslie had to book three moving vans to drop off the contents of her old house.

“Yeah I get that but what about this?” He said gesturing to the box in front of him, “We really don’t need to keep the ‘Racoon reports of 2010’”

“You never know when we might need those” Leslie answered quickly.

Ben sighed, “Ok look, I’ve got a storage space in Indianapolis, it’s gone some old bits from work and from when I lived there, can we please move most of these boxes there?”

Leslie pouted, “Fine, but if the racoons suddenly develop Racoon Lice again then I’m sending you to Indianapolis to get the reports”.

Ben smirked, “I will be the first one out of Pawnee if that happens”.

He climbed over the pile of boxes over to her, “Whatcha got there?” He asked leaning over her.

“These are just some photos that I’ve kept over the years, I’m not throwing these away,” She said straight away.

“No, photos can stay” Ben agreed as he shunted a box out of the way so he could sit next to Leslie on the floor, “Is that you?” He asked pointing to the photo she was currently looking at.

“Yeah, it’s me and my Dad” She said and a sad smile lingered on her lips, “I need to get a nice frame for this”.

Ben nodded, “I’ll add it to the list of stuff we need to get, it’s a nice photo” He said as he planted a kiss on Leslie’s forehead.

They soon forgot all about the hundreds of boxes that were surrounding them and soon got lost in looking at the photos that Leslie had pulled out of the box.

There were some from Harvest Festival, from April and Andy’s wedding, some of, what he assumed, was the pit behind Ann’s house before it was filled in, at every photo they looked at Leslie let out a small gasp at every one as she reminisced with Ben.

“Hey look I’m in this one” Ben said as he pointed in the background of one photo of Leslie, Donna and Tom at the Freddy Spaghetti concert, sure enough in the background Ben was there looking miserable.

Leslie leant towards the photo to get a better look and cackled, “Oh yeah, I see you, you do not look happy!”

“I wasn’t! A certain someone went behind my back to put on an amazing concert!” Ben said as he wrapped an arm around Leslie.

“Well that someone regrets nothing” Leslie replied, leaning onto his shoulder.

After they had finished looking through the photos Leslie leant forward and pulled out a large photo frame from the box, “We definitely need to find somewhere to put this” She said as she handed it to Ben.

Ben looked at it, at first it didn’t look like much, just a lot of writing. It wasn’t until he started reading it out loud that he knew what it was.

“Because I love Leslie, I want to be with her, I don’t want to hide the way I feel about her anymore, so yeah it was worth it because I’m in love with Leslie Knope” Ben read out loud, he lowered the frame with a loving smile, “You got the transcript from our trial? How did you even get this?”

“I called in a favour from Ethel” Leslie said smiling up at him, “She gave me that and my transcript with the promise to never bother her again with a romantic gesture of love, I’ve had it up in my house ever since that day, I used to look at it when I was sad or when I missed you when you were in DC, it’s a little reminder of what we’ve been through”.

Ben leant down and kissed her, “This is so sweet and although that day was probably one of the most stressful in my life, I’ll remember it forever”.

Leslie smiled into his lips, “I will too”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come over to my tumblr and give me some love there (Not like that, get your minds out of the gutter!) @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	12. Insanity

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 12 time! I might be churning a couple more of these out today because I'm avoiding flat cleaning at all costs.
> 
> Thank you all so much for the comments and kudos! They mean the world to me and make me so happy when I wake up in the morning to see the emails!

“You’re insane”.

“I prefer to think of it as overly passionate”.

It had been two weeks since the Government officially shut down, and two weeks since Leslie Knope went behind Ben Wyatt’s back and put on a concert for the town’s children. Ben thought that was going to be the last time that he would have to deal with Leslie, until she turned up to one of the budget task force meetings announcing that Ron had passed her the baton.

She was exhausting and her energy astounded Ben, she could talk for hours about ideas that she had to help re-instate the government, there had been several times when Ben thought about letting her lead the meetings rather than himself, but he knew if he did that things could only end badly, her ideas were smart and different, but she had not thought them through, if she had control of the towns budget then she would ban vegetables and scrapbooking classes would be added to all the schools curriculum.

It made Ben feel weird attracted to her imagining her as a crazy vegetable hating dictator.

Today was no exception for the unstoppable force that was Ms Knope. She turned up an hour before the meeting was due to start with ten boxes filled with binders on how to help the budget crisis.

Ben, who had gotten there early that Monday to sort through some emails he left before the weekend was startled as Leslie dragged the boxes into the room.

“Good lord” he exclaimed as Leslie stood proudly in front of him, “What is all this?”

“I spent the whole weekend thinking of new ideas on how to save the government, all these binders have been sorted into categories for all the different departments and then those have been sub categorised for ideas on how each department can do something to help that doesn’t have to result in budget cuts or job losses” Leslie said in one breath, once she had finished she sucked a good amount of oxygen back into her lungs and beamed proudly at Ben.

Ben was a little horrified at how much this woman seemed to work, this weekend he ignored all work related information and wrote some Star Trek fanfiction. He had a rule that work didn’t follow him home or he would never find that happy medium.

“You’re insane,” He blurted out.

Leslie cocked her head to the side, “I prefer to think of it as overly passionate”.

Ben had to agree with her there, “Ok, I’ll give you that one” He looked over at the boxes and sighed, it was going to take him a good two weeks to at least get half way through all these.

He rose from his desk and straightened his tie, “Well, now that you are here do you want some coffee?”

“Already taken care of” Leslie said grabbing two takeaway coffee cups from the table.

“One coffee, skimmed milk and no sugar…personally I don’t agree with how you take your coffee so I brought you some sugar packets just in case you are willing to change your mind” Leslie said handing him the coffee and about thirty packets of sugar.

Ben grinned at her, “Thanks”.

“No problem, you can get me one tomorrow, now, shall we get a head start before everyone else arrives?” Leslie said as she pulled a chair closer to his desk and pulled out a notebook.

Ben had nothing better to do, Chris was out for his pre budget meeting run and there was no one else around, he might as well spend some time brainstorming with Leslie.

Plus she was pretty easy on the eyes, especially when she creased her nose up whenever she smiled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come over to my tumblr @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	13. Misfortune

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to get this chapter out tonight since it has been my boyfriend's birthday today, but we've ended up eating so much that we are drifting in and out of food comas so I've been able to churn this out fairly quickly!
> 
> Thanks for all the comments and kudos, they mean the world to me!

They had both been unfortunate, he bankrupt an entire town, she was recalled after a year serving on the City Council.

Leslie was able to bounce back fast after her recall, she found her calling elsewhere, whereas Ben’s demons followed him around everywhere he went, even when he had a throng of people around him telling him how great he was, in his head he was still Ice Clown.

Ice Clowns could never run for congress and win, that was against the laws of physics surely.

It had been two days since he had officially announced he was running, he had been thrown into campaign mode and was growing increasingly stressed.

It was like post traumatic stress disorder for him, all these campaign meetings with Jen and her team and being followed around by the press was just bringing back awful memories of being eighteen and having no clue what he was doing.

Jen had assured him that she would not let him make any of his past mistakes and if he did she would string him up by his balls. Ben knew that Jen wasn’t kidding; she would be capable of doing that if she wanted to.

That didn’t stop him from sitting in him study staring at a blank computer screen and refusing to go to sleep because if he did then he was sure he could hear the heckles and screams of people telling him he was going to fail.

A cool hand rested against his slightly moist back bringing him out of his thoughts. 

“What are you doing up?” Leslie asked, resting against the desk.

Ben shrugged, “Can’t sleep I guess”.

Leslie sighed, “You’ve not been sleeping good these past few nights, what’s going on?”

Ben bowed his head, “I think I’m regretting running for congress” He admitted quietly, “I thought I could handle it but it’s been two days and I’m incredibly stressed out, it just feels like there are so many people out there waiting for me to slip up and fall and single-handedly destroy everything”.

“But you won’t” Leslie said calmly, placing a hand on his shoulder, “You’re not eighteen anymore, you’re forty-.”

“Thanks for reminding me”.

“You know what I mean!” Leslie scorned, “You’ve grown up from your past mistakes, you know that. You ran my campaign and helped me win and now it’s your turn to bask in the glory”.

“I didn’t help you win the recall vote though” Ben said, grimacing slightly at the memory.

“And not winning was the best thing that ever happened to me” Leslie explained, “I’ve gone up in the world, I’d never look back from where I am now”.

She cupped his stubbly face in her hands and placed a kiss on the tip of his nose, “We’ve been unlucky but the universe owes you a break, you’ve got the best team and dare I say it, the best wife ever, you’re going to go and win this. You know you will”.

She gently climbed onto his lap and pulled him in for a warm kiss, easing all of Ben’s worries and fears.

Misfortune had officially run out for them, it was clear skies from here on out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check out my tumblr @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	14. Smile

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How am I on chapter 14 already? 
> 
> This chapter is fluffy and sweet, enjoy!
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated.

Leslie finally understood the MouseRat song ‘Sex Hair’.

She couldn’t fight back her laughter as Ben rolled off of her and lay next to her. Tiny beads of sweat trickled down his forehead and his thick brown hair in a wild mess. Tufts were stuck up irregular angles and it looked bigger than usual.

Ben stared at her with questioning eyes, “What’s so funny?” He asked and he begun tickling Leslie, making her laugh even harder.

“Your hair!” Leslie spluttered out through giggles, “I gave you sex hair!”

Ben ran a hand through his wild locks and smirked, “Well we fucked each other good”.

The two of them lay stark naked next to each other, Ben tangling his fingers through Leslie curls, a smile etching across his face.

It was a small smile at first, but the longer he combed Leslie’s hair the bigger it grew, his cheeks dimpled and his eyes sparkled in the evening light.

Leslie loved this smile, there was that Ben Wyatt smirk he always did when something amused him or made him happy, but this smile was reserved only for her. The toothy grin usually made its appearance after sex.

She could easily get lost in that smile for hours.

Ben looked up at Leslie, she was staring at him intently, “What?” He asked.

“Nothing” Leslie said, a smile creeping on her own lips, “I’m just really into you”.

Ben playfully nudged her arm, “You goofball”.

He pulled her closer to him, a finger drawing patterns on her bare breast, “I don’t want to go to work tomorrow” He whined, leaning his head back into the pillows.

“Neither do I, I hate going there and not being able to kiss your or look at your butt, I just want to stay here forever” Leslie said nuzzling into his neck.

“I know” Ben sighed, “We'll make it work, I promise, even if it means moving and taking up secret identities”.

Leslie cackled and she looked up at Ben, “There’s an idea”.

Ben loved that smile, he called it her ‘after sex’ smile, that faint flushed look on her face, the way her eyes wrinkled in the corners and her nose creased. It gave him pride that this smile was only reserved for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come check me out on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	15. Silence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter! I hope you all enjoy! 
> 
> Thank you so much for all the comments and kudos and for all the ones that might be left on this chapter, they mean so much to me and I love reading them!

You could have cut the tension with a knife.

Leslie and Ben sat opposite Chris Traeger who had his fingers laced over his mouth as he stared down at his desk.

He knew, he must’ve found out.

The silence in the room spoke louder than any words could, Leslie’s mind was racing at the speed of light, trying to think of occasions where she might have walked out of Ann’s office with her hair ruffled and her skirt askew. Ben would follow two minutes later, haphazardly buttoning his shirt in the wrong parts. 

That must have been the reason Chris called them both to the office this early in the morning, he did not rise from his desk when they sat down, he did not greet them good morning in his usual fashion, he just sat there staring at a blank spot on his desk.

“Chris?” Ben cautiously asked, “You ok?”

There was no reply, nothing but silence, Leslie and Ben exchanged worried glances, this was it, two weeks of secret make out sessions and taking separate cars to restaurants for their dates was ruined, Leslie had bought a set of brightly coloured wigs to wear every time she went to April and Andy’s to meet Ben, just in case anyone saw her, all that effort (and money) for nothing.

Their bubble had popped.

“Chris?” Ben said again, rapping his fingers on the desk to try and rouse him from his silent tirade.

Chris’s eyes slowly travelled to the two of them, his brow furrowed.

Then he jumped up from his desk, causing the two secret lovebirds to jump back into their seats.

“Leslie Knope! Ben Wyatt! My apologies, I was reading this book,” He said perkily as he pulled a book from his desk, “It’s _literally_ the best book I have ever read, have you read it?”

There was no reply from the two of them, other than the silent exhale of relief.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After the meeting, which was a two hours session where Chris praised them – apparently he was still unaware of their relationship – Ben and Leslie dragged their shaky legs into Ann’s office.

Thankfully Ann and her office mate were both out at separate meetings, giving Ben and Leslie the privacy they needed.

There was no need for words, the two sat on Ann’s desk in stunned silence, Leslie’s head nuzzled into Ben’s shoulder, her heart hammering against her chest.

“I thought we were getting fired” She admitted, trying to steady her breathing, “I thought he knew”.

“Me too” Ben breathed out, “My heart’s going crazy, is this what a heart attack feels like?”

Leslie lifted her shoulder; “We have to be so careful” She said gently as she pecked his cheek, “Maybe we should have lunch separately today”.

Ben nodded, “That’s a good idea”.

Leslie was about to leave when Ben tugged her back down to his level, “Can we just stay here for a little longer?” He asked, “Just while we calm down”.

A soft smile spread on Leslie’s mouth, “O-ok” She whispered, she could do with a breather too, she felt tingly and hot but not in a good way, like how she used to feel at school when she was being told off.

She placed her head back on Ben’s shoulder and laced her fingers into his, both of them taking steady rhythmic breaths. The silence of the office lulling their hearts back to a steady beat.


	16. Questioning

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for your comments and kudos thus far, please don't be shy, come let me know what you think and if you have any critques! I am more than happy to accept them!
> 
> This chapter takes place during Leslie and Ben's first ever date! Enjoy!

“Why do I feel like I’m being interrogated?” Ben jokingly asked as he took a sip of his wine.

“You’re not, I promise, I’m just curious about your life. I want to know everything about you” Leslie said, looking up at his with those beautiful blue eyes that made him want to melt.

Ben had to admit he had never been on a date with a girl before who turned up to the restaurant with a binder full of questions for him. But then again, Leslie Knope was no ordinary girl, she was special, and so far their first date had gone extremely well.

They went to a place in Indianapolis to go undetected from anyone from the Pawnee government, they requested a table in the corner and drank wine and the conversation flowed.

“Come on, answer the question” Leslie pouted.

“Ok, ok” Ben said smiling at her, “I would be sorted into Ravenclaw, obviously. And my quidditch position would be chaser”.

“I think the exact same” Leslie said excitedly, “You’ve got a tight compact body, you’d be so fast on a broomstick, although personally I think you are a Ravenclaw with Gryffindor tendencies, like a Gryffinclaw!’

Ben smirked at her, she was just so adorable, she had asked him so many questions tonight to get to know every little detail about him, he kind of appreciated that, no girl had ever been so intent on finding out all of his wildest fantasies and dreams and actually kept a straight face while he told her them.

“Ok, I’ve got a question for you” Ben said, causing Leslie to look up from her binder a little panicked, “It’s fine, it’s a good one, hypothetical situation: you’re riding into battle on an animal, what animal would that be? Mine would be a Direwolf from Game of Thrones”.

Leslie furrowed her brow, “Damn that’s a good question, I’m writing that one down!”

As she typed it out on her phone to remind herself, Ben couldn’t help but imagine Leslie on the back of a Dragon, flying into battle to save Pawnee, her blonde hair trailing behind her dramatically and an exposed breast peeking out of her Qartheen gown…

Dang it, why did he have to go and imagine Leslie as Daenerys, now he could feel his dick pulsing slightly and growing hard against his thigh, he shifted himself so that it wasn’t too obvious.

Leslie hummed to herself as she thought of her answer, “Ok, well obviously it would have to be something fierce but adorable at the same time… maybe like a giant hummingbird or something”.

“A giant hummingbird?” Ben repeated, “Those tiny little things that only drink sugar water?”

“Yeah!” Leslie said happily, “They’re so cute, but a giant one would tear you up! That giant pointed beak would do some damage”.

Ben had to agree with her there, he reached his hand over and placed it on top of hers, “I’m so glad we’re doing this”.

Leslie’s face lit up, “Me too, and nothing’s gone wrong yet”.

Ben snorted, “Why do you have such a big fear of first dates?”

Leslie blushed, “Oh! Well…”

She spoke for about half an hour about all of her first date horrors, about how she drank an entire bottle of vinegar and turned up at a guy’s house drunk after preparing for a first date. All the while Ben was thinking about how special this really was, she wasn’t scared or nervous, she was just being herself. The beautiful, bubbly, chirpy woman that she was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	17. Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm super sick, I'm currently dosed up on a stupid amount of Penicillin and I'm running on a Leslie Knope amount of sleep. 
> 
> ANYWAY - enjoy this chapter!! Comments and kudos are appreciated!

Every month was the same, Leslie was sure she was bleeding to death, there was no way that amount of blood could come out of someone and they would still be living.

She clutched the hot water bottle closer to her lower stomach and groaned, she had called in sick to work due to ‘personal issues’ but all she could think about was how Milton was probably sat in the City Council Chambers commenting about how it was the 7th of the month yesterday.

The second day was always the worst. It was the day where her uterus just wanted to punish her for not getting pregnant that month, she felt emotional, tired and groggy. And everything ached.

She knew that it would ease up now, once the second day passed things got a little easier, she had to hit rock bottom of her period before she knew what way to go. 

The front door opening startled her and she looked up from the sofa, uncurling herself from the hot water bottle to see the intruder.

“Ok, so I grabbed as much candy as I possibly could from my meeting at Sweetums as requested” Ben said as he made his way over to her, he gave her a peck on the top of her head and handed her a lollypop.

Leslie quickly pulled the wrapper off and placed the lollypop in her mouth, she let out an audible moan and sunk back down into the foetal position.

“How do you feel?” Ben asked as he rested a hand on her back and palmed small circles against it.

“I feel like crap, I mean jeez Uterus sorry I’m not having a baby this month, no need to throw a hissy fit” Leslie said, burying her face into a pillow.

Ben chuckled softly, “I’m sorry you don’t feel so good, is there anything I can do?”

Leslie reached over and yanked at his blazer, “Come cuddle with me?” 

Ben obliged and settled down behind her, spooning her. Ever so gently he nudged the hot water bottle away from her stomach and rested his hand against her aching area. He gently pushed into the skin and rubbed her lower stomach, Leslie loved this, she called it her ‘utero-massage’ she had no idea why it worked having Ben press down slightly but it eased her cramps and just felt soothing.

“That good?” Ben asked after a while.

Leslie nodded into him and pulled his arms around her, “Yes, thank you” she said, her mouth slightly muffled by the lollypop.

She loved ‘not sure what he wanted to do but has been going to several meetings regarding jobs’ Ben, he had time off to look after her but was also concentrating on his future. But she really hoped he ended up taking this job at the Sweetums Foundation, then there would be a never-ending supply of candy every time it was her period.

Ben shifted slightly and looked down at Leslie, “I picked up some bubble bath so how about I go upstairs and run you a warm bath?

Leslie reached up and pecked her fiancé on the lips, “That would be amazing, thank you”.

Ben removed his arm from around her and got up from the sofa, “Stay here, I’ll call you when it’s ready” and he took off for the stairs.

Leslie smiled as she re-adjusted the hot water bottle, Ben was so perfect and attentive, she needed to thank him for all that he had done today.

Thankfully, day three of her period was coming, and day three was her horny day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	18. Rainbow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I've missed posting this for the past few days, I've been so busy (getting wasted) but never mind! I'm back now! 
> 
> Thank you so much for all the comments and kudos so far, and please feel free to leave more! I love reading and replying to them!
> 
> Without further ado, please enjoy this chapter!

“Mommy, look!”

Leslie looked at Wesley, who was clinging hold of her right hand pointing excitedly to the sky; she glanced upwards to the grey-clouded sky and saw the bright hues of a rainbow peeking through.

“What’s that? It’s pretty!” Wesley exclaimed, attracting the attention of Sonia and Stephen and the two charged over.

“It’s a rainbow” Leslie explained, “That happens sometimes when it’s sunny and rainy at the same time”.

They had been on a weekend away in San Francisco and had gone on a walk through the Muir Woods, Ben had just finished explaining to the triplets that the last time they were here they were still in Mommy’s tummy when the heavens opened and rain poured down. They had taken plenty of umbrellas and raincoats so were quickly protected from the downpour. It however didn’t stop the triplets from jumping and splashing in puddles.

The rain stopped as soon as it started and their walk continued when Wesley spotted the rainbow. All three triplets were now staring in wonder at the sky.

“You know there’s a story about rainbows” Ben said as he crouched down to the triplets level, upon hearing the word ‘story’ they all gathered around him, “If you find the end of the rainbow there is supposed to be a pot of gold”.

The triplets eyes sparkled in awe as they started enthusiastically started chatting about finding the pot of gold.

Ben straightened up and Leslie wrapped her arms around his chest, he was just the cutest and the best Father in the world, and she loved him more than anything.

“You know if we do find the end we’re screwed right?” Leslie asked as she gazed into Ben’s brown eyes.

Ben chuckled, “They’ll forget in five minutes, something else will entertain them”.

They stayed in silence for a few minutes while they watched raindrops trickle from the leaves of the giant trees in front of them, Leslie was so glad that they decided to come here for the weekend, this was a special place for her, this was where four years ago her career completely changed for the better.

“If you ever found a pot of gold what would you do with it?” Ben asked, bringing her out of her thoughts.

“I don’t need a pot of gold” Leslie replied, a smile creeping across her pink lips, “I’ve been pretty lucky already”.

Ben grinned at her and dipped his face towards hers for a kiss, their fingers intertwining and bodies pressed together.

A tug at Ben’s jacket made them break the kiss and look at the intruder, it was Stephen. 

“Where’s Sonia and Wesley?” He asked innocently.

“Oh my god!” Leslie cried out, “We’re missing two children!”

Ben suddenly gasped out in horror, “They’ve gone to find the end of the rainbow!” He quickly scooped up Stephen and they both started searching the woods for the two lost children.

Four years and they were still getting used to this parenting malarkey, they soon found the missing triplets who had decided to jump into a huge puddle of mud and get covered in filth. That’s when the parents decided that this was the end of the walk and time for a bath.

But as they left the Muir Woods, all five of them stared up at the rainbow in the sky; they admired the colours and chatted about leprechauns. And despite hand in hand with two mud-clad children while Ben had Stephen, she still thought she was the luckiest person alive.

She didn’t need a rainbow or a pot of gold to tell her that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	19. Gray

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the comments and kudos so far! Keep them coming! I love receiving them!

“Good lord”.

Ben held it in front of his eyes to get a closer look, a tiny strand of grey hair clamped in between two fingers mocked him, he breathed out and the hair wavered in the breeze.

This was it, his life was going downhill from here, there was nothing good to come out of this. He was going gray and probably bald at the same time.

“Babe, you ok?”

Ben spun around to see Leslie standing in the doorway, she was wearing her pyjamas that consisted of flannel bottoms with paw prints on them and a light blue tank top that hugged her slightly rounded stomach, she had only just started showing and her pregnancy had officially sunk in for Ben.

Oh god they were having triplets.

“I was brushing my teeth and I scratched my head and _this_ ” He thrust the gray hair in front of her face, “came out, it’s gray, Leslie, I’m going gray, help me I’m dying!”

“Ok, ok” Leslie quickly said as she enveloped Ben in a hug, “First things first I need you to calm down, everyone goes gray at some point and you’ve still got plenty of beautiful dark brown hairs up there so you’re good for the moment”.

She ruffled his hair, making Ben back away, still holding the gray hair in front of his face.

“But I’m not even forty yet” he cried out, “And we have triplets on the way, they are not going to want an old gray haired Dad! Oh my god we’re having triplets…” Ben trailed off, leaning against the sink for support.

“Ben” Leslie’s calm voice soothed his manic heart beat ever so slightly, “Relax, everything’s going to be fine, you’re not dying, found a gray hair, that’s no big deal. I’ve found multiple gray hairs, you’re not alone in this, it’s probably just there because you’ve been so stressed out recently”

She reached over and took the gray hair from his hands and threw it in the nearby trashcan, “We don’t need to keep that, you need to relax, the babies are going to love you, they won’t care if you’ve got gray hair or no hair at all. You’ll be the best Father in the world”.

Leslie took his hand and rested it on her slightly rounded middle, “Look at me” She said and Ben’s eyes slowly travelled to meet her blue orbs, “You’ll be fine”.

Ben sighed long and hard, “Ok, thank you. I love you,” he said as his hand circled around her stomach.

“I love you too” Leslie replied with a loving smile, “Plus going gray isn’t such a bad thing, I think you’d make a sexy silver fox”.

Ben snorted, “That’s not helping!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: sakurablossomstorm@blog


	20. Fortitude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How am I on chapter 20 already?? Time flies when you are having fun!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this chapter, don't forget to leave comments and send kudos!

Leslie didn’t cry the night she found out she had been recalled from office.

She had a wild couple of nights, she just stopped caring about everything, got super drunk and tried to get a tattoo. Ben might have had something to do with that.

She didn’t cry the morning after when she made her speech announcing the recall vote. Leslie held her head high and delivered the speech that Ann had written for her with poise and grace.

Ben had thought she was coping very well, but even Leslie Knope had a breaking point.

The night before her last day in the City Council she broke.

It was over something so simple, she couldn’t find her phone. She left it in the bathroom and had turned the bedroom upside down looking for it.

Next thing Ben knew she was slumped on the floor sobbing, Ben clambered out of bed and pulled her into his chest, “Hey, hey, what’s going on, we’ll find it”.

“I’m leaving tomorrow” Leslie sobbed into his chest, “I-I’m being kicked out tomorrow…I d-don’t know what I’m going to do now”.

Ben’s heart ached, he wanted to scream and shout at all the citizens of Pawnee for what they did to her, he wanted to hug her and kiss all of her pain away, but he couldn’t she was hurting right now and all he could do was hold her while she cried.

“You’ll be ok,” He told her, “You’ll survive, you know you will. You’re Leslie Knope! You’re a natural born survivor. I have total faith in you that you’ll bounce back from this”.

He rocked her gently back and forth as she clung hold of his shirt, her tears stained his shirt but that was the least of his concerns.

Pawnee was a wicked town. They needed to get away from here, take a vacation or something.

“I’m going to show them” Leslie said through pained sobs, “I’m going to build an amazing park and show them all what I’m made of…”

Pawnee ha thrown Leslie several curveballs, this wasn’t a curveball; this was a giant cannonball, obliterating her hopes and dreams. But she found courage in her pain. Ben felt her grip tighten on her shirt, she wasn’t sad, she was angry. And where there was Angry Leslie, Driven Leslie was just around the corner.

For now, he had to wait for her to calm down, and maybe take her for waffles before bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	21. Vacation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the comments and the kudos so far!! It means so much to me and I hope you enjoy this chapter! Little smut never hurt anyone!

They needed Paris.

They _really_ needed Paris.

It wasn’t just being in Europe and away from America for just a week, they needed the pastries, the coffee, the macaroons, the long walks. They just needed the time to remember how much they loved each other.

They held hands as they navigated the French streets and got to that giggly drunk stage when they drank too much red wine in a French bistro, the trip was probably one of Ben’s best ideas.

Their hotel was super sexy, every night the maid covered their bed in rose petals, they were just asking for them to have sex on it really.

One night they had gone to see the Moulin Rouge and taken an extortionate amount of pictures outside it and then drank way too much wine after eating, they drunkenly staggered back to their hotel room and as Ben fumbled with the room key, Leslie pushed him up against the door.

“Leslie, I’m trying to unlock-.”

“Who is zis Leslie?” She replied with a terribly fake French accent, “My name is Fleur Escargot and I am here to have sex with you”.

Ben crumpled against the door, laughing hysterically, “You’re a French prostitute?”

“Wait what?” Leslie said, breaking out of her accent, “Wait…no, let me try that again…Oh Monsieur I do believe zat zis is my room and you are my sexy Butler?”

Ben snorted and opened the door, “Just get in there Miss Escargot”.

Leslie obeyed and spun around, grabbing Ben’s suit jacket and pulling him into the room and into her lips, the door slamming shut behind them.

Leslie wrenched off Ben’s jacket and tossed it on the floor while Ben fumbled with the zipper of her dress, after a while of grabbing and yanking, Leslie’s dress was on the floor, closely followed by Ben’s pants and shirt.

They kissed passionately; there must have been something in the air when they arrived in France that made them both feel so sultry and alive again, they had gone through a lull after the recall vote, Leslie was miserable and not even the though of naked Ben could cheer her up, Ben hated seeing her like this and their nights were usually made up of cuddling.

But sex here was so much better than it had ever been.

Still locked onto each other’s lips, Leslie’s lips hit the back of the bed and the two tumbled on top of it, the scattered rose petals bouncing into the air.

Ben reached around and unclipped Leslie’s red lacy bra that she brought at a cute boutique two days ago, he held it up and examined it.

“I really like this” He admired before tossing it over his shoulder.

“Hey! Respect the bra!” Leslie giggled as Ben leant down and begun sucking ferociously on a pink nipple, she gasped out, her nails digging into Ben’s back.

It didn’t take long for him to be trailing kisses down her stomach and towards her dripping wet pussy, he drunkenly stuck his face straight into her, rooting around for that magic little nub that made her scream his name out loud.

He sucked and licked while Leslie gripped the bed sheets and cried out his name, she came undone against his face as he licked her excess juices.

Ben leant up back towards her, his erection well and truly hard enough for her, he was about to push inside of her when Leslie placed a hand on his chest, stopping him.

“What gives?”

“Wait! I’m trying to remember something” She chewed her bottom lips, her eyes scanning the ceiling and Ben could practically see the clogs whirring in her brain, she then gasped out and pointed excitedly at Ben.

“Voulez-vous coucher avec moi?” She said in her terrible French accent.

Ben burst out laughing, “Really?” 

“You have no idea how badly I wanted to say that!” Leslie cried out excitedly.

“Ok well I have no idea what that means, but the answer is oui!” Ben said as he pushed inside of her wet centre, causing Leslie to arch her hips into him, allowing him to go deeper and to hit that sensitive spot easily.

Everything was so much better in Paris, they both thought once their heated sex had ended, thank god for Paris.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	22. Mother Nature

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had to think a little harder for this chapter, it didn't come as naturally as some of my ideas have. But then it hit me, the name of the show was a big hint for me that I apparently missed!
> 
> I hope you enjoy! Remember to comment and kudos! I love reading them and also replying to them!

“So this is Ramsett Park, this is Pawnee’s most visited park. It’s been open since 1986 and there’s a handball court, a lake, everything your perfect park would need”.

“And raccoons?”

“…yes raccoons…but we’re trying to get that sorted”.

The government had been shut down for a month now and Leslie was starting to go insane, she had been tirelessly working with the State Auditors to try and get their budget re-instated and get the government up and running.

After another stressful day, Leslie had told Ben that she wanted to show Ben Ramsett Park, to try and convince him that it needed to be re-opened.

Surely if he saw how wonderful the park was then he would have to re-open it, right?

Sadly in the time that it had closed there had been no one to take care of the park, weeds had grown wild and raccoons were claiming back their territory. They could see a few skittering away as the two approached.

“It really is a beautiful park,” Leslie quickly said, trying to defend her case, “It’s just…no one’s here to look after it”.

Ben smiled apologetically, “I can see it would be…but you know it’s not my fault-.”

“I know, I know” She cut in, “I’m just saying…I want this to be sorted as fast as we can so I can just go back to my job”.

Ben stuffed his hands in his jacket pocket and turned to face Leslie, “You really love your job, don’t you?”

Leslie sadly nodded, “Yeah, I like working hard and y’know being outside is nice too…Mother Nature, Flora and Fauna and all that”.

Ben had to agree, he looked over at a tall oak tree that was currently shading them from the setting sun, “Well, Chris told me today that we’ve got a new lead on getting money back, we’re another step closer to getting this sorted”.

Leslie’s eyes lit up, “Really? That’s great news”.

“Yeah, then you can actually tidy up this supposedly beautiful park?” Ben teased and Leslie playfully slapped his arm.

“I have photos to prove that it’s beautiful,” She said, wagging a finger in front of his face.

Ben laughed and pushed her finger away, “Alright I believe you”.

It was a little chilly for a summer’s night, Ben found himself shoving his hands deeper into his pockets so salvage some warmth, he looked back at Leslie and noticed that her teeth were chattering slightly, without hesitation he pulled his jacket off, forgetting all about his cold hands and draping it around her shoulders.

Leslie looked a little surprised by this act of kindness; Mean Ben was actually being _sweet?_ That was unheard of, that still didn’t stop her cheeks from tingeing pink and muttering a quiet ‘thank you’ to him.

“You wanna get a beer?” He asked, just like that day she went to apologise after shouting at him, “Or a coffee if you’re cold?”

“A beer sounds great” Leslie said as she pulled his jacket closer around her body, “I hope you’re buying this time, I’m out of a job”.

Ben chuckled softly, “Well I guess you did buy the last one”.

And the two left the park back for the raccoons to claim their domain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr, I accept prompts and other nice things! @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	23. Cat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Number 23!! I hope you all enjoy! 
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated!

“That’s a cat” Ben’s stared at the bundle of fur in Leslie’s arms.

“Yes” Leslie said in a matter of fact voice.

“And you remember I’m allergic to cats right?” Ben asked her.

“…I remember that now” Leslie spoke quietly, embarrassment hinted in her voice.

“Where did you even get a cat from?” Ben asked as he lay his briefcase down on the sofa, warily eyeing up the cat which was hands down the ugliest cat he had ever seen, it had a squashed face and he was pretty sure the cat was scowling at him.

“I adopted it” Leslie replied as she rubbed the top of the cat’s head, “I thought it would be fun like this could be my new project, I could write a book about looking after a cat or start a pet grooming business, the possibilities are really endless”.

Ben edged carefully towards her, tentatively he raised a hand to pet the cat, hoping that this just to happened to be a hypoallergenic breed and he wouldn’t break out in hives when the cat hissed loudly and swatted at him with it’s paw, Ben jerked away with a yelp and the car hissed and squirmed in Leslie’s arms until it freed itself and hid under the sofa.

“That is not a cat, that’s a demon!” Ben snapped, cradling his hand, the cat didn’t touch him but it was the mere principle that he could have easily lost a finger.

“It’s just going to take some getting used to” Leslie stated as she got on her hands and knees to look for the cat, “Come on out Hilary Catton”.

“Hilary what?” Ben spluttered, “no, no and no! We are not naming it because we are not keeping it”.

“Why not?”

“Because-.” Ben was cut off by violently sneezing three times in a row, “Because that’s why!” His voice was now thick and nasally, “Crap, do we have any antihistamines?” 

Leslie had backed away from the sofa after ‘Hilary Catton’ started to hiss and spit at her, “I’m not sure”.

Ben sighed and rubbed his blocked nose, “Look, this cat is…adorable but we can’t keep it, I’m getting sick already and we should have really spoken about this together”.

“I know I just…I couldn’t sleep last night and well I started looking at cat adoption websites, I just thought it would be something to occupy me” Leslie mumbled as she rubbed her forearm.

Ben softened, he suddenly remembered that this was Leslie’s last week in City Council and she was going through a weird grieving period, she had been angry, in denial about the whole thing and up until 5AM on internet chat rooms arguing about how Ross was a terrible character on Friends.

She was just looking for a distraction, and unfortunately this hairballed nightmare was her new distraction.

“I guess we can keep it for a week” Ben said as he wrapped an arm around her shoulder, “but if I’m still sneezing it’ll have to go”.

“Fine” Leslie agreed, “But can you feed her tomorrow night? I’ve signed up for an African Dance class”.

Ben glared at her, “You’ve signed up to _what??_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	24. No Time

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much once again for the comments and kudos! They really make my day! I hope you all enjoy this next chapter.

“Do you think we could…?” Leslie trailed off suggestively as she twirled the bottom of Ben’s tie around her fingers.

“What? _Here?_ ” Ben asked looking around the office, “Babe there’s no time for that, not to mention if someone walks by”.

“They won’t” Leslie hummed as she pulled him closer to her, “We’ll close the blinds so no one can look in and we’ll be super quiet”.

Ben raised an eyebrow at her and Leslie sighed, “Ok fine _I’ll_ be super quiet”.

Her hands travelled up to his hair and she carded her fingers through it, “Come on, there’s something a little sexy about doing it someplace we shouldn’t”.

Ben had to agree there, “We still don’t have time to do that”.

“We’ll be quick” Leslie told him as her other hand flew to his crotch, delicately rubbing at it through the fabric of Ben’s pants.

His penis disobeyed Ben’s silent pleas and grew aroused, pressing against his zipper and straining, Ben moaned as Leslie nipped along his neck, brushing her cheek against his stubble.

He couldn’t help but stare at the clock in the corner of the room, the hands ticking away, reminding Ben that someone would be walking through that door at any second.

“Babe” Ben said warily, “We can’t…he’ll be back soon”.

“We could just lock the door” 

Ben scoffed, “We can’t shut someone out of their own office”.

Leslie pouted, “Urgh, you’re right. It’s just not fair, I want to jump your bones all the time, I hate this stupid rule”.

“What? No sex at work is kind of a standard practice everywhere,” Ben teased.

“Not that, the stupid rule that means I can’t kiss you after lunch or get in the same car after the day’s over, it’s so annoying” Leslie groaned as she leant against the desk.

Ben sighed, “I know, but let’s not think about that right now, we’ll figure something out, I promise”.

A soft smile spread across Leslie’s lips as she leant up to kiss Ben’s warm lips, “You’re sweet,” She told him.

Ben grinned, “I try”.

“But you know what would be even sweeter?” 

Ben smirked, “Alright, let’s do this”.

He pushed his lips against her harder and snaked his hands up towards her breasts, rubbing them through her blouse and feeling her nipples push through her bra desperately.

That’s when the door opened and the two jumped away from each other, they came face to face with Ann’s grumpy office mate, Stewart.

Stewart raised his thick eyebrows at the pair, this wasn’t the first time he had caught them near boning in Ann’s office.

“H-hey Stewart” Leslie stammered as Ben slunk behind her, trying to conceal his boner, “We’re just waiting for Ann for our daily meeting about…the health department and…stuff”.

“I told you we had no time” Ben hissed from behind her back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	25. Trouble Lurking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm a quarter of the way to 100!! So close but so far!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this chapter! Comments and kudos are appreciated!

“I’m not sure if you want to make that move…there’s trouble lurking-.”

“What are you doing?”

Ben spun around to see Leslie standing in the doorway to their office with her arms folded, it was way past the triplets bed time and they were currently all up around gathered around the table.

Leslie inspected what they were all looking at, “Ben, are you playing Cones of Dunshire with them?”

Ben slowly nodded, “Wes found the game and they started getting the cones out so…”

“They’re six! Do they even know how to play?” Leslie asked, Stephen was currently lying on his chair trying to fight off his tiredness; Wesley was wearing the Ledgerman’s hat and kept pushing it up as it slipped down his forehead and Sonia was collecting all the dice together.

“I’m not sure, but they seem to be having fun” Ben shrugged, “I tried to explain it to them but it’s a little confusing-.”

“CONES!”

Ben turned to look at Sonia, her Wizard character standing at the top of the cones, Sonia beamed at her parents proudly.

“I win!” She cried out happily

“No, no honey” Ben chuckled softly, “You haven’t won, you still need to…”

He paused and analysed the board game, Sonia’s characters were all gathered around four cones; he gulped nervously and looked back at Leslie.

“She won,” He whispered to her.

“Oh my god she beat you” Leslie gasped in shock.

Sonia clapped her hands excitedly and begun jumping up and down excitedly, “Yay! Yay! I won! No vegetables for a week!”

“Excuse me?” Leslie snapped turning to her daughter.

“Daddy said if I beat him then Mommy and Daddy would have to eat all of my vegetables for a week!” Sonia replied cheekily as she placed her hands behind her back.

Leslie gave Ben a death stare, “You told her _what_?”

Ben gulped, “I didn’t think she’d win!”

“You made a _bet_ with our six year old Daughter?” Leslie shrieked, prodding Ben in the chest.

Ben blushed furiously, “I’m sorry,” He gasped weakly.

“You are in big trouble Mr,” She hissed at him and the children made ‘oooo’ing noises behind them.

Ben had a horrible feeling that Cones of Dunshire was going to be banished to the attic again after this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	26. Tears

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the comments and kudos so far! Please come leave more! I love reading them!

“It’s ok, honey. Dry those tears”.

“I-it’s just so sad”.

“I know it is but they’ll be ok”.

“Wh-what if they aren’t? What if t-they just don’t have any one to look after them?”

Leslie sighed and looked at the TV, it had been one of those commercial about donating money to take care of dogs with only three legs. She thought he wouldn’t take much notice but Ben was doped up on a lot of morphine, and as soon as the commercial started he started blubbering like a baby.

Sure, those commercials made Leslie a little misty eyed, but that was usually around the time of her period.

Leslie changed the channel so there would be no more three legged puppies and pulled a sobbing Ben closer to her, wiping the tears that streamed down his face.

“It’s ok, babe” She whispered softly, trying to soothe her husband, “They’ll be looked after, someone will adopt them, remember how April and Andy got Champion?”

“Championnnnnnn” Ben wailed into Leslie’s chest, “Champion…only has t-three legs”.

Leslie rocked Ben gently, rolling her eyes at Ben's crying, “Yes and he’s a perfectly happy dog, everyone loves him”.

Ben sniffled and buried his face further into Leslie’s chest, he had been like this since they left Minnesota, he experienced mad bouts of mood swings, ranging from getting so excited he nearly peed his pants when R.E.M came on the radio to crying in a roadside diner once his food arrived.

He still had a good four pills to take before he was out and could hopefully cope by himself, but whenever Leslie got normal Ben once the medication wore off it was usually him hunched over in agony, clutching at his groin where the kidney stone once resided. She usually made sure he kept taking the pills before he got to that stage, even if it meant that she hadn’t had a normal conversation with him for almost a day.

They had stopped off at a motel in Iowa on their way back to Pawnee to get some much needed rest, all this driving and taking care of Morphine Ben was exhausting for Leslie, she hadn’t felt this tired in a long time.

Ben shifted slightly in her arms and sat up, his eyes bright red and glassy, “It’s just not fair” He cried, slamming his hand down on the mattress, “Dogs only have three legs and…why can’t we all just get along? Why can’t we all just hold hands and share cake with each other? I don’t hate anyone; there is not a person in this world that I hate! I love everyone and it’s not fair that people hate each other”.

Leslie just stared at Ben as he started to get all weirdly philosophical, this usually meant a pill was about to wear off and she needed to get his dosed up again.

“Do you know what else isn’t fair” Ben said, grabbing at Leslie’s hands before she could move to find his medication, “the fact that I’m the only one married to you, no one else gets to experience you and hug you and kiss you because it’s just awesome and everyone in this whole world should be able to just have you for like a day”.

Leslie raised an eyebrow, “Are you pimping me out, Wyatt?”

She reached forward and placed a kiss on her Husband’ slightly moist forehead, “I don’t want everyone in the world” She told him, “I just want you”.

Ben gave a weirdly high-pitched giggle, “I love you Baby Smurf,” He slurred out.

Leslie smiled at him as swung her legs off the bed, “I love you too, but I think it’s time you took some more medication, you’ll be-.”

She turned back around to see Ben passed out; his face squashed into the pillows with his mouth wide open and snoring loudly, his arms and legs spread out taking up most of the mattress.

Leslie giggled and shook her head, she gingerly climbed next to him on the bed, occupying a small chunk where Ben wasn’t hogging and turned the TV back on and the volume right down to barely audible.

He’d wake up in a bit when his penis started to throb in pain again, and she’d be there to hold his hand while he choked down his pills.

But until then, she’d just doze in front of the TV and listen to his rhythmic snores.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	27. Foreign

Pawnee was a strange town, Ben had decided.

He had been living here for just over three months and he thought he had seen it all. Streets occupied by raccoons and possums that you weren’t allowed to go down unless you wanted to get your eyes scratched out, pizzas that were stuffed with mini burgers and a weird tinged pink sky apparently caused by the candy factory here.

The weirdest thing of all had to be the most famous citizen of their town. A miniature horse. A miniature horse called Lil’ Sebastian.

Ben just didn’t get it, he really didn’t, in fact it kept him up at night trying to figure it out. It was one of those things that he really should just let go and accept to be another quirk of this weird town but he couldn’t.

“You’re not from here,” Leslie said kindly, after the initial shock had set in that he didn’t care about Lil’ Sebastian, “You just don’t understand the importance that he had on our town”.

“I don’t know” Ben mumbled, “I mean I get town mascots are great and everything but he’s…just a small horse”.

Leslie raised her eyebrows, “You know I’m doing everything I can to not punch you right now” and Ben backed away anxiously.

“Sorry” Leslie quickly said, “It’s just…Lil Sebastian helped make our town great and he’s old and cute and…He just needs taking care of…he’s going to help make the Harvest Festival the best it can be”.

Ben knew Leslie was anxious about the festival; he softened and sat back down, “You know the festival is going to be great” He told her, “With or without a miniature horse”.

Leslie pursed her lips; “He’s going to attract so many people, but…thank you for that…and thank you for your help on this”.

Ben grinned, “It’s my pleasure, I’ve actually liked helping out here”.

Leslie’s eyes met his own, he stared into her bright blue eyes, taking in the crystal blue pools; he felt his cheeks grow hot and quickly looked away.

“So…when do you have to leave?” Leslie quickly said, changing the subject.

“A couple weeks I think” Ben answered, “Once we hear about a new job we’ll pack it up here and move on”.

“Oh” Leslie replied, her eyes lowering to her hands, “Well…I really appreciate everything that you’ve done for us, the festival tomorrow is going to be great and I can’t thank you enough”.

Ben’s cheeks were really going red now, “Don’t mention it…seriously…it’s my job”.

Leslie smiled, “Well, before you go I’m going to get you to love Lil’ Sebastian, even if it kills me”.

Ben leant back in his seat cockily, “Challenge accepted, Knope” he smirked.

Leslie chuckled softly, “Ok, so what’s Partridge’s mascot?” she asked, clasping her hands on her desk.

“Oh…um” Ben’s eyes widened in embarrassment, “it’s…Fred the Sled”.

Leslie’s eyes brightened in curiosity, “And what’s that?”

“It’s…a guy dressed as a sled,” Ben quickly said.

Leslie sniggered, “Wow, Minnesota is strange”.

“Hey, you’re not from there you just don’t understand it!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments and kudos so far! I'm so glad you are all enjoying this story!
> 
> Come follow me on tumblr for more: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	28. Sorrow

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so this chapter was a bit of a tough one so sorry if it's a bit underwhelming compared to the others, regardless I hope you enjoy!

She should feel happy, right?

She had an awesome campaign team who were confident she was going to do well in the upcoming election, she had wonderful friends who would drop everything to help and a great job to boot.

So why didn’t she feel happy?

Because she broke up with the man of her dreams. And he wanted nothing to do with her. He didn’t even want to be friends.

Leslie lay awake after Ben had accused her of steamrolling him, she couldn’t sleep, couldn’t think straight.

She kept glancing from the ceiling to her phone on the bedside table, no texts, no apologies, nothing.

Tears stung her eyes; it sucked bad enough that she and Ben couldn’t be together but not even working together or being friends? That was too much to handle.

Leslie had drunk a fair amount of wine that night, she hadn’t meant to, after she got home from that day she poured a glass all the way to the rim and drank heavily.

She called Ann too, crying down the phone to her, telling her she missed him and how this wasn’t fair, Ann had tried her best to comfort her friend, but the situation sucked and not even that wonderfully plucky rabbit could help.

She liked him so much, maybe even loved him. No man had ever made Leslie feel so emotionally stable and as light as a feather before. He was special.

And tomorrow he was going to move on to other departments, and Leslie would be nothing to him.

She had horrible nightmares of walking into City Hall one day and seeing him with a beautiful tall brunette (because apparently he loves tall brunettes), kissing her and telling her that she was perfect, then two kids would come running around the corner with his dark eyes and her perfect hair and throw themselves into Ben’s arms and he’d shower them with kisses and cuddles.

That was meant to be her.

A sob escaped Leslie’s mouth and echoed in the darkness of her room, she missed him like crazy; she needed him in her life to survive.

Unable to take it anymore she grabbed her phone from the table and text a frantic message to him.

_Ben,_

_I’m so sorry about everything, you’re right; I do steamroll people, but don’t leave me. Please. I’ll go crazy if I can’t talk to you anymore, it hurts so bad and I know it hurts you not being able to be with me, believe me I’ve never known pain like this. But you can’t just walk out of my life, you’re so important to me…_

She was steamrolling again; telling him what to do and making him feel guilty.

Leslie quickly pressed delete to the message and tossed her phone to the side, sinking back into her pillows and sobbing harder than ever.

She couldn’t make Ben turn around and walk back into her life again, not by a stupid drunken text anyway. She couldn’t let him know how much she hurt.

Because some words are just better left unsaid.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	29. Happiness

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments (Especially for the last chapter!) They mean so much to me! Feel free to leave more!

Leslie leaned closer to the mirror, inspecting her cheeks. She was sure that flushed look was never going to leave her face and she’d be happy if it didn’t.

She smiled at her reflection and walked out of the bathroom and back to her bed, Ben was lying there with the blankets covering his modesty and she crawled towards him with a grin.

“Hey fiancé” She whispered sweetly as she took back her position of being curled up next to Ben’s chest.

“Hey yourself” Ben replied, kissing the top of her head.

Leslie pulled the blankets around her bare body and snuggled closer, tonight had just been beyond magical. It started out a little crappy, especially after she went to go tell her realtor that she could no longer take the house.

She didn’t expect to be proposed to as she looked at what would have been her new house.

And she didn’t expect Ben to then tell their realtor that they would in fact be taking the house.

They were both amazed they could keep it in their pants as they drove back to Leslie’s house. Once there clothes were discarded and they had sex for the first time as an engaged couple.

It was a bit stop and start, every time the diamond on Leslie’s hand caught her eye she immediately started crying happy tears and Ben stopped to wrap his arms around her and cuddle her, that usually led to her jumping straight to horny again and pouncing back on him.

“We’re engaged” Leslie said in a sing song voice as she wiggled the fingers on her left hand, her engagement ring sparkling under the bedroom light.

Ben hummed in agreement, “Did you expect that this morning?”

“I had no idea” Leslie replied, “What made you do it?”

“I realised I didn’t want to be without you anymore” Ben said, nuzzling into the top of her head, “And no job would be worth not seeing you every day”.

Leslie sighed into him, “You’re so romantic…and very sneaky too…but I’m happy you’re back”.

“I’m happy you said yes” Ben remarked.

“Me too” Leslie whispered, leaning up so her lips could meet Ben’s, she missed they way he felt against her, the way he always tasted like cinnamon and how soft his hair was when she ran a hand through it.

As they pulled away and lay in blissful silence, Leslie had to think about how happy she felt in this moment. And how amazing the rest of their life was going to be together.

“I’m so happy” Leslie whispered as her eyes began to droop.

“Me too, babe” Ben murmured sleepily as he rested his cheek on the top of her head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	30. Under the Rain

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 30 down - 70 to go!! 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy! This was one of the chapters I looked forward to writing the most!

“The weatherman did say it was going to rain today I guess” Leslie muttered as she looked out towards the downpour.

“And neither of us thought to bring umbrellas” Ben replied next to her.

They were just about to leave City Hall together after a hard days work when the thunder cracked loudly and torrential rain pelted down. It was the biggest April shower they had ever seen. They stood in the doorway leading to the parking lot, their car the last one in the bay.

“I could go back to the department and see if there’s an umbrella lying around?” Leslie suggested.

Ben shrugged, “Don’t bother, we might as well run out to the car, it’s not that far”.

Leslie pursed her lips, “We’d get soaked”.

“Not if we run fast” Ben told her, his hand slipping into hers, “Come on, on the count of three”.

Leslie sighed and gripped his hand tightly, “Alright, three”.

“Two” Ben counted, a slight grin etching on his face.

“ONE”.

The couple tore out into the rain, the cold droplets soaking them to the bone almost immediately, Leslie shrieked as she accidently stepped in a puddle, the water splashing up her leg and onto Ben’s.

“Hey!” Ben cried out, stopping and letting go of her hand.

“Sorry!” Leslie quickly apologised, trying to cover her head from the rain with her hands.

A cheeky smirk crossed Ben’s face as he edged towards the puddle, Leslie’s eyes widened as she realised what he was about to do.

“Don’t you dare,” She warned, low in her throat.

It was too late, Ben swung his leg and kicked the puddle, water ricocheted off his leg and covered Leslie. She screamed loudly as her blouse and pants were covered with water.

“You’re a dead man!” She shouted back and took a running jump into the puddle, splashing Ben back. 

The two soon ended up in a silly water fight, splashing in puddles and dragging one another around the empty parking lot, they both shrieked and giggled as they played like schoolchildren.

After about five minutes of their game, Ben grabbed Leslie and spun her under his arm; he pulled her close and began dancing with her. Leslie cackled loudly as Ben swayed his hips to the beat of the raindrops hitting the concrete.

If anyone were to look out of a window they would have seen their new City Manager and recently recalled Councilwoman dancing romantically in the rain. 

Ben could feel the rain starting to pinch against his skin, they had been out here long enough, he knew they would get sick if they didn’t get home soon and change out of those wet clothes.

“Come on” He said, taking Leslie’s hand and leading her out towards the car.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You’re such a weirdo,” Leslie told Ben as he settled down next to her and handed her a mug of hot chocolate. They had changed out of their soaked clothes as soon as they got home, Leslie’s damp hair tousled around her shoulders and clad in a tank top and paw printed pyjama pants, Ben had a towel draped around his neck and had changed into his plaid bottoms and a long sleeved flannel shirt.

“I thought I was being spontaneous and very romantic” Ben said cheerily as he pecked her cheek, she still felt cold, he hoped that the hot chocolate would soon warm her up.

Leslie grinned and nuzzled into his chest, “Ok fine that too”, she said as she licked the whipped cream from the top of her hot chocolate.

Ben rested his head against Leslie’s wet hair, she smelt like rain and the faint smell of her shampoo seeped through, he sighed contently and sipped the hot chocolate, letting the warmth run down his throat.

No one would ever dance with her in the rain, Leslie thought as she drank her hot chocolate in peaceful bliss, no one but her sweet, dorky husband. And she loved it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	31. Flowers

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the kudos and comments so far!! Please leave more comments though! I love to read them and to reply to them too!

Leslie scowled at the clock on her desk, time was going by way too fast today and it just wasn’t fair.

Today was her last day before going on maternity leave, she really felt like she was being punished, Dr Saperstein had ordered her to take full leave when she hit four months because of the high risk pregnancy and Ben was adamant that she followed his rule. But that meant no more working in the best job in the world and no more early mornings planning what she was going to work on that day.

She had only been in her job as Director of the Midwest Region Park Service for two months and she had nowhere near had her fill, but things were getting to be a struggle on a day-to-day basis. 

Her stomach popped out in her second month, the triplets were not going to be forgiving to her work life, the third month she spent most of it hanging over the toilet in her office puking up anything that touched her lips.

Now at four months the morning sickness had subsided but Leslie was growing at a rapid pace, she looked about seven months gone and her expanding middle refused to fit behind her desk, she had to plan strategically to kind of sit to the side while she did her work.

There were going to be some things she wasn’t going to miss about her job, like that guy, Ed, who was just an accident prone moron, Leslie wouldn’t miss him, but she hoped that when Gavin took the reins during her leave he would fire him. 

Leslie sighed again, the clock was moving in double time, she rested her hand against her pregnant belly and leant her head back.

‘Stupid maternity rules’ she though to herself as she closed her eyes, feeling her triple cherries stir inside of her.

There was a knock at the door, which brought Leslie out of her thoughts, she sat back up and gawped at the doorway.

Ben was standing at the door with a bouquet of beautiful red roses in his hands, “I think it’s time someone started their maternity leave” He grinned as he walked in and handed Leslie the flowers.

Leslie immediately burst into tears and pushed herself up awkwardly to give Ben a sloppy kiss, “you are so sweet” She hiccupped after their kiss ended.

“I thought you’d be sad about finishing up here so I thought I’d surprise you” Ben explained, “There’s a card too”.

Leslie lifted up the sweet smelling bouquet and plucked at the card resting in the middle of the flowers, she opened it up and read aloud.

“Leslie, you are about to embark on a wonderful journey to help bring our three perfect children into this world, don’t be sad, you are just moving to a new and much more important job and I’m going to be right there to help you through every step” she just about managed to read the card before bursting into more hysterical tears.

Ben enveloped her in his arms, rocking her gently and kissing the top of her head to soothe her, “It’s ok honey” He whispered gently to her, “Don’t be sad”.

“I’m ok” Leslie quickly said, pulling away so she could wipe her eyes, “You are just so perfect and amazing and I’m so happy you put babies in me”.

Ben smirked and rubbed her belly, “I’m glad too, but you have to promise now that you’re going to look after them, no more working, I didn’t put babies in you for you to neglect them”.

Leslie giggled, “I know, I promise I will look after them”.

Ben grinned and walked over to her desk to pick up her bags and shut off her computer, “Do you have everything?”

Leslie nodded, “I think so, I mean you’re not exactly far if I forget something”.

Ben nodded, “True” He held out his spare hand to take hers, “How about we go and get some waffles for an early dinner”.

Leslie agreed and picked up her flowers, she took one last sad look around her office, it was goodbye for now but not forever.

She then buried her nose into the roses and took a long sniff, the floral scent filling her nostrils, instead her life was going to be filled with lots of flowers from Ben, she was going to make sure of that.

After all, this was all his fault, damn his penis.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on tumblr for more of my works: @Sakurablossomstorm-blog


	32. Night

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sad because this is going to be my last chapter for two weeks! I hope you all enjoy this one and will keep you satisfied until I get back!

“Goodnight”.

“Goodnight, Wesley”.

“Goodnight”.

“Goodnight, Stephen”.

“Goodnight, Daddy”.

“Goodnight, Sonia”.

“Goodnight”.

“Goodnight, Stephen…” Ben sighed rubbing his cheek, he had been there with the triplets saying goodnight to them, they were currently in a phase of having to say goodnight about eighty times before any of them showed signs of being sleepy, it was super cute at first, but now just a little annoying.

“Right, Daddy’s going now” Ben announced, getting up and making his way towards the door.

“Daddy, Stephen got an extra goodnight! That’s not fair” Wesley said grumpily as he sat up from his bed.

“Ok, ok” Ben sighed again and he leant against the door frame, “Goodnight, Wesley”.

“Goodnight, Daddy”.

“And me!” Sonia piped up from beneath her pile of cuddly toys.

Ben smiled at his daughter, “Goodnight, Sonia”.

“Goodnight, Daddy!”

“Alright, that’s enough now” Ben said reaching for the door handle to close it, there was a nightlight on for them and they left the hallway light on in case of any night-time terrors.

“I love you all” Ben said as he pulled the door towards him.

“I love you!” The triplets chorused back.

Ben grinned and gently closed it, that might have been a record for them tonight, sometimes they kept Ben in there for at least another forty minutes chiming their goodnights, Leslie had been in there an hour once because when she tried to leave all three triplets had a simultaneous meltdown and she had to calm them down.

He trudged back downstairs where Leslie was setting two glasses of white wine on the coffee table.

“That was quick” She commented as Ben sat back down on their sofa.

“Yeah, they were kind to us tonight” Ben said as Leslie handed him a glass, as much as they loved their excitable five year olds, they also loved the moments to themselves where they could drink and swear and just be in each other’s company.

They clinked their wine glasses together and Leslie leant into Ben’s arms, “busy day huh?” she mumbled.

Ben nodded in agreement; he had flown to Indiana that morning to deal with some urgent congressman business, he hadn’t stopped since he got back to their house in Washington about an hour ago, and even then he had to entertain the triplets because they missed him so much.

“Our lives have always been busy” Ben reminded her, kissing the top of her head, “We can manage”.

Leslie agreed, “As long as I can always snuggle with you in the evenings then I’m happy”.

She reached up and pecked Ben’s stubbly cheek affectionately; he smirked against her touch and rubbed her hip delicately.

Their moment was interrupted by a quiet snuffling noise in the corner of the room, Leslie looked over and saw Stephen standing in the corner of the room trying to hide his giggles.

“Stephen, what are you doing up?” Leslie asked.

“Wesley and Sonia dared me to come downstairs…I love you!” He shrieked and sprinted back upstairs.

Ben and Leslie sighed together, along with the triplets new bedtime chanting, they had also gotten into dares. 

They were all so exhausting, but Leslie and Ben wouldn’t trade them for the world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: sakurablossomstorm-blog


	33. Expectations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the comments and kudos so far! Please make sure to comment on this chapter if you can!
> 
> I'm so happy I can get back into the swing of this! There's some really fun drabbles coming up that I am excited about! Happy reading!

“I’m just going to tell you right now I have very low expectations of these” Leslie told Ben as he shuffled around the kitchen, “No homemade waffles can ever beat the great JJ’s”

“Well we’ll see what I can whip up m’dear” Ben replied as he carefully lifted the lid of the waffle iron to check on his waffles, “They look pretty good to me”.

“It’s all about the taste, not the look” Leslie retorted.

“Is that what you tell yourself when I go down on you?” Ben sniggered and then immediately dodged a flying pillow from the lounge.

“Hey! Do you want these waffles or not?”

“Yes please” Leslie replied, pouting slightly.

She had woken up at 5:30 on a Sunday morning whining that she was hungry and wanted to go to JJ’s, Ben loved his lazy Sundays but since getting married to Leslie they had been non-existent. He managed to coax her for another good hour in bed but it didn’t last for long, while he dosed she was going over plans for her newest bill for city council and she nudged him awake so she could read aloud her plans

He had rolled over and groaned, telling her that he just wanted to stay at home and haze a lazy Sunday, he told her they could have JJ’s at home, Leslie immediately perked up and stopped working, she had expected Ben to go and pick up some takeout waffles.

How wrong she was.

Ben fished out the waffle iron that he and Ann had bought Leslie not too long again; she had insisted that it was a historical artefact and should not be cooked with, however Ben told her that he’d be able to re-create JJ’s at home with the iron.

He whipped up a standard waffle mix with his own little spin on things, a pinch of salt here, a tiny bit of cinnamon there, he was an experimental cook, he loved taking regular recipes and turning them into something different and challenging.

Sometimes Leslie found it exhausting, especially when she became guinea pig to his creations, sometimes she had to smile through the horrible tasting food, but every now and then there was a success, his mac and cheese pizza had been an experiment and Leslie adored that.

Ben just hoped she felt the same way about his waffles.

He checked the waffles again, they were a perfect golden brown, he carefully pried them from the waffle iron and plated them up, he placed sliced strawberries around the sides and finished his presentation with a large squirt of whipped cream.

“Here we go” He said, placing the plate in front of Leslie on the coffee table in the lounge, followed by two cups of coffee and Ben’s own plate of waffles with less whipped cream, “I hope you enjoy”.

Leslie eyed him warily and took a tentative mouthful, she chewed a couple times, her face frowning and brows furrowing, Ben didn’t dare touch his own until he got his approval, in a minute there would either be Leslie expressing how much she enjoyed them or a mini tantrum about how she wanted JJ’s waffles.

She swallowed her first mouthful and Ben’s heart hammered, “Well?” He asked, watching her every move.

Leslie lips formed a small ‘O’ “Expectation exceeded” She whispered, a slightly breathiness to her voice, “These are so good, babe. Did you put cinnamon in these?”

“I did” Ben beamed at her smugly, “So do I beat JJ’s?”

“I wouldn’t go that far” Leslie replied as she took another bite, “But these are a close second”.

Ben grinned proudly, “I think that’s the best compliment I’ve ever received from you, I’ll take that” He said as he took a sip of his coffee.


	34. Stars

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments and kudos so far! Please leave more, they are most definitely appreciated!

“Hey, we should stop for tonight” Ben said to Leslie as he scooted on the floor to her level, she was sat amongst a pile of boxes and slowly unpacking everything into their new house.

Leslie glanced at the wall clock, which was still on the floor waiting to be hung in the kitchen, “God it’s midnight, when did that happen?”

“We’ve been busy” Ben replied, placing a kiss on her soft lips, “But we’re getting there” He counted the remaining boxes around then, “ten more boxes and we’ll be officially unpacked”.

Leslie grinned and leant against her fiancé, a week ago they had gotten engaged and this morning they moved into their new house, she couldn’t believe this had all finally happened, it still felt like Ben was about to leave to go back to Washington, but now he was going to be there with her every night and every morning.

“You hungry?” Ben asked, nudging her gently, “We haven’t eaten tonight”.

“I guess I could eat something,” Leslie said, her stomach had been rumbling for a while.

“Let’s get something delivered” Ben said as he got up from the floor, he grabbed his phone to call up a pizza place that he knew delivered until late into the night, while Leslie shifted some boxes to the side and walked towards their new front door. She rubbed the wooden pane and thought about maybe painting the front door, something bright and welcoming would be perfect, she opened the door and peeked outside into the night. 

It was a chilly November evening and the skies were clear, frost was building on the car parked in the drive and she shivered. She looked up at the sky and smiled, the stars were all out above her, sparkling against the darkness.

“Ben, come out here” She called, Ben hung up the phone after ordering and walked outside to join her, “Pizza will be here in half an hour” He told her, “What’s up?”

“It’s just pretty out” Leslie said, her eyes still on the sky above her, she noted the swing on their new porch and walked over to it, she sat down and winced slightly at the coldness of it and the patted the empty side next to her, “Come sit with me for a bit?”

Ben reached back inside and grabbed his tanned jacket, he walked back over to Leslie and wrapped his jacket around her to keep her warm, Leslie accepted it happily and snuggled into it, taking in Ben’s lingering scent on it.

He pulled her into his chest as they both stared up at the night sky, both of them so blissfully happy to finally be in the same state and their own home. Leslie couldn’t help but think about all the happy memories that they would soon experience in this house, all the late night planning for their upcoming wedding, Christmases, birthdays, New Years, maybe a child or two might come into the mix in future years.

Leslie sighed contently into Ben’s chest as she counted the stars above her, she was sure she could see the Big Dipper and pointed it out to Ben as he cuddled her closer, admiring the tiny flickers of light above them.

“Good lord it’s cold” Ben finally said after about fifteen minutes outside, “my butt’s going numb”.

“No not your butt!” Leslie cried out, Ben gave her one final squeeze and he stood up, offering her hands to help her up.

“Come on” He said, placing another kiss on her lips, “Pizza will be here soon”.

Leslie placed her hand into his and the two walked back into their brand new home.


	35. Precious Treasure

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first started this project and looked over at the list I made some brief notes of what chapter would have what, this was one of the first ideas that I had! Enjoy and remember to comment!

“Would you like to hold them, Daddy?”

Ben jolted slightly; he hadn’t heard the nurse come in to check up on Leslie, who was slumbering in her hospital bed. She had her c-section a day ago and was just drained of energy, for the entire time that they had been together for Ben was sure that this was the longest amount of time he had seen her sleep for, partly thanks to the pain medication that they gave her to help ease the pain from being cut open so that she could give birth to their triple cherries.

Their beautiful, healthy triple cherries, who were currently sleeping in the same cot, snuggled up to each other while swathed in blankets.

Ben looked from the cot up to the nurse with a soft smile, “Sure, they look so comfy though I don’t want to bother them”.

“I’m sure they’d be better off in Dad’s arms” The nurse replied softly, she finished checking over Leslie who was completely oblivious to having her blood pressure checked. She then gestured to a chair close to Leslie’s bed, “Sit down, I’ll bring them over to you”.

“All of them?” Ben asked and was caught off guard when the nurse nodded with a smile, was that safe? He had only held two at a time but all three seemed impossible.

Regardless, Ben sat down and watched as the nurse pulled a new pillow out from the cabinet close by, she lay it on Ben’s lap and then walked over, carefully lifting the first baby out, Ben recognised it to be Wesley and she placed him on the right of Ben, the nurse coaching Ben on how to hold him, resting the tiny baby’s body against his right arm and laying his head into Ben’s palm.

Once comfortable she went to retrieve Stephen, “We’ll keep the girl in the middle so you can tell them apart, they are so similar” The nurse cooed to the tiny baby as she rested him against Ben’s left arm in the same way she had done for Wesley.

Finally, the nurse brought over Sonia, slotting her into the gap between her brothers. Ben was immediately overcome with a series of emotions, happiness, pride, anxiousness and tearfulness as he smiled down at his three beautiful babies.

They were all here, after eight months of scans, morning sickness and literally forcing Leslie to stay in bed to rest, she had done it and brought these miracles into their lives. They were all so healthy and the procedure had gone well. 

The nurse beamed at Ben, “Would you like me to take a picture so you can show your wife later?” She asked and Ben nodded, he knew Leslie wanted as many memories as possible and it probably killed her that she couldn’t hold her eyes open for more than thirty seconds without drifting back off to sleep while she recovered, so it was all up to Ben to make sure plenty of photos were being taken.

He directed the nurse to his phone on the table and she snapped a couple of photos for them, “I’ll come back in a bit, are you ok like this for a while?”

“Oh definitely” Ben quickly said, he could have stayed like this for hours, watching his three precious treasures sleep peacefully.

The nurse told Ben to call if he needed anything, but for the moment Ben was completely contented with the three bundles in his arms, he leant down carefully and placed a kiss on each baby’s forehead. 

He took in the sight, they were adorable and just so perfect, Wesley and Stephen were snuggled up to Sonia, their heads turned in slightly and resting against hers, they were already protective of their sister, Ben could already tell she was going to be a heartbreaker and any suitors would have to answer to her two overly protective brothers.

They all looked so similar, all tiny fingers and pink skinned, but soon they’d come into their own and would inherit traits from both Leslie and himself, one of them could have her blonde hair or his dark brown eyes.

He just hoped none of them inherited his nose.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	36. Eyes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the comments and kudos! Please remember to leave more as they make my day and are so appreciated!

“Alright Mr Wyatt, I’ll need you to hold this over your left eye and read out loud the letters in front of you” Ben’s Optometrist explained as he handed Ben a piece of black card to cover his eye.

Ben covered his left eye as instructed and…good lord. He could read those letters a minute ago, now they were just blurs in the distance, he swallowed nervously and squinted.

“Um…P, L, K…A? No J…uh…”

_‘Come on, Ben’_ He thought angrily to himself, _‘There are twenty six letters in the alphabet, there’s a one in twenty six this one will be right, just take a wild guess’._

“B” Ben said next, his eyes wandering over to the Optometrist who was giving him a look that made Ben feel pathetically small.

“Can I try again?” He asked with a sheepish smile.

“I’m afraid not, Mr Wyatt. I’m prescribing you reading glasses”.

Ben Wyatt, respected Congressman for the Indiana district, was going blind.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Let me see, let me see!” Leslie exclaimed excitedly as Ben closed the door behind him after returning from his appointment.

“I don’t want you to see them” Ben mumbled, “Besides, they are for reading only I don’t have to wear them all the time”.

“Oh come on, babe,” Leslie pleaded, “I just want to see you in them, you might grow to like them”.

“I don’t think that’s at all possible” Ben grumbled, “They feel weird”.

“You’ll get used to them, and at least you’ll be able to read without holding a book thirty feet away from your face anymore”.

Ben sighed, “Alright fine” He groaned, pulling the case from his jacket pocket, he pulled it open and placed the thin spectacles on his face, his vision blurring slightly to adjust to the new frames.

He had to admit his vision had cleared up since putting them on, he could make out small details that he would have usually missed, the new drawing he could see on the refrigerator in the distance, the blue stripes on Leslie’s shirt and he could definitely make out her turned on face as she watched him.

“Hi Professor” She murmured, reaching her hands around him and running them down his back.

“Don’t get used to them,” Ben told her, “I’m only going to wear these when I absolutely have to”.

“Well I know someone who will like them,” Leslie said with a soft smile.

Just at that moment, a small figure skidded around the corner and gasped loudly.

“Daddy! You look just like me!” Wesley squealed excitedly, barrelling towards his father. Leslie quickly stepped to the side so that Ben could scoop Wesley up into his arms, “You’ve got glasses”.

Then it all hit Ben like a ton of bricks.

Wesley had been getting teased at school recently, he was the only one in his class who wore glasses and the other kids thought it weird that someone so young wore glasses and called him old. But now seeing his father, the man who Wesley looked up to the most, wearing a pair similar to his made the little boy smile the biggest smile his parents had seen in days.

All of a sudden Ben felt a fondness for his glasses, he had a feeling they would stay around his eyes for a little longer tonight, just to keep his son happy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @Sakurablossomstorm-blog


	37. Hold My Hand

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok so I screwed up a little...
> 
> This was meant to be Chapter 35, but I accidentally skipped over it, I was going through my notes when I realised I was a number behind, so I went back and wrote this! 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!

“You know you can hold my hand if you want?” Leslie said, “No one here knows who we are”.

She was right, she and Ben had taken a long weekend away from Pawnee to Michigan upon Ann’s recommendation. She told them about a cute bed and breakfast and these beautiful gardens up in the University of Michigan. 

However old habits died hard with them, they walked through the beautiful rows of flowers a good few centimetres away from each other, afraid of getting too close in case someone saw and told Chris.

But Chris was miles away.

And they could finally act like a couple.

Ben smiled at Leslie, and ever so slowly his hand moved into hers, lacing their fingers together and pushing their palms so they were touching. 

“Like this?” Ben murmured and Leslie nodded, a soft smile creeping on her face.

“Just like this” She replied.

The floral scent filled her nostrils and she took a deep breath in, taking in her surroundings, this really was perfect, this whole weekend had ben perfect, nothing but cuddles in their hotel room in the mornings and passionate, hot sex in the evenings. 

And the best part of it all was walking around like this, like a new couple just starting out who can’t keep their hands off each other.

The pair walked around the gardens, both refusing to let go of each others hand, they’d be back in Pawnee tomorrow morning and once they got back they’d have to go back to pretending that there was nothing happening between them.

And it killed her.

She hadn’t felt this way about a guy in a long time, Dave was nice but not her type, things with Justin were over before they began and Mark was just another kettle of fish. But Ben…

Ben was kind, generous, gentle, patient, she could go on. There were times she really wished they met under different circumstances, or if she realised as soon as she met him that she liked him. 

Chris wouldn’t have been City Manager then, just another budget specialist; they possibly could have gotten away with it then.

Leslie couldn’t help but wonder if she could get her hands on a time machine to take her back to the first day she met Ben and kiss him there and then, things would have been so much more simpler if she could.

Ben gave her hand a gentle squeeze, bringing her out of her thoughts, “You ok?”

Leslie nodded, “Yeah, I’m great…I’m so glad we did this”.

Ben grinned, “Me too”.

He lifted their linked hands up slightly, “And this is pretty nice too”.

Leslie beamed at her boyfriend, “Yeah it is”.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	38. Abandoned

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 38 is up! Enjoy!

“How could someone just be some unbelievably cruel!?” Leslie sobbed into Ben’s arms, he had been rocking her gently and trying to soothe her for well over an hour now, but his heavily pregnant wife hiccupped loudly and showed no sign of calming down.

Ben made a mental reminder to never let her Google ‘triplet birth stories’ ever again.

Because it led her to a Youtube video about a woman who kept two of the babies and left the third on a doorstep somewhere in Connecticut.

“It’s ok, Leslie” He soothed, his thumb rubbing her back, “It’s not real”.

“T-then why is the video called ‘True Life Story – Woman abandons triplet’?” 

Ben opened his mouth to counter it…but nothing.

They were so close to the end now, but Leslie’s hormones had been a whirlwind, one minute she’d be laughing so hysterically she was on the brink of peeing herself, the next she’d be crying because she missed looking at her feet and she ‘missed her pinkie toes’.

Her words, not his.

“I couldn’t do it” Leslie whimpered, sobs wracking her body, “I c-couldn’t just pick a baby and a-abandon it! I love them so much, Ben”.

“I know you do, I love them too” Ben replied, kissing the top of her head in hopes of calming her down.

“Y-you didn’t at first, you freaked out”.

Ben frowned, “Hey now, yeah I was caught off guard by them but I never once thought about abandoning one, no way. As soon as we found out about the triplets I knew I loved them straight away, sure they scared me but they’re kids, they’re going to scare us”.

He tried to not be too insulted by Leslie’s comment; she was upset and not thinking straight. All he could do was just remind her how much he loved her and their triple cherries.

He did put three babies in her; he had lost all power of holding grudges against her.

Leslie burrowed her head deeper into Ben’s chest, practically digging her nose into Ben’s rib cage, “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Ben. I didn’t mean it”.

“I know, babe. I love all four of you so much, you know that right?”

“Uh huh” Leslie mumbled, sniffing back the last of her tears. 

“Are you ok now?” Ben asked, stroking her blonde hair, “Are you going to be able to go to sleep now?”

Leslie was silent for a moment and then gave a defeated nod, Ben eased her off his chest and helped her get comfortable next to him, her eyes were drooping and she was more than ready for sleep.

“Goodnight, Leslie. Please no more talks about abandoning children, because these three are going to be the most loved babies in the entire world” Ben said as he rested a palm against her large belly, an answering kick made Ben grin and nuzzle closer to Leslie.

“See, Wesley agrees with me”.

“That’s not Wesley, that’s Sonia” Leslie mumbled, her eyes now closed.

Ben smirked, “How can you tell?”

“Mother’s intuition”.

Ben chuckled and wrapped his arms around her so that her head was back on his chest, “I love you, Leslie”.

“I love you too, Ben. Goodnight”.

Ben closed his tired eyes and let sleep slowly pull him into the haze of unconsciousness.

“Ben?”

“Mmm?”

“I’m hungry”.

Ben’s eyes snapped open and he sighed, that sounded about right. Usually after a Pregnant Leslie crying spell she’d be hungry.

“Wait here” He mumbled sleepily as he climbed out of bed.


	39. Dreams

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments and kudos so far! Please keep them up because I love reading them!

“What’s this?” Ben asked as he picked the leather bound red book from Leslie’s side of the bed.

Leslie peeked out from her bathroom, “Oh that’s my dream journal. I like to write down all my dreams if I can remember them just in case they give me new ideas or mean anything.”

“Can I have a look?” Ben asked.

Leslie hovered on the spot. “I don’t know. It’s kind of weird. I have strange dreams.”

Ben nodded at her answer and respectfully set the journal back on the table. Leslie frowned. Her dreams weren’t all that weird but she was worried there would be something in it that would make Ben run for the hills.

“Sure, why not,” Leslie replied handing Ben the journal again.

She climbed back into her bed next to Ben. Things had been going so well recently for them, despite one small mishap where Leslie’s mom tried to hit on Ben. But other than that it was all plain sailing.

There were lots of cuddles and history channel documentaries…and sex. The sex was amazing.

Ben carefully pulled the metal clasp open and settled down, “Ok let’s read what the great Leslie Knope dreams about…I married Alf and we were pretty happy.”

“Yeah let’s not talk about that one. It didn’t end too well,” Leslie quickly said, nudging Ben to turn the page.

“Alright. I was chased through Ramsett Park by a group of giant carrots. Is this why you don’t like vegetables?” Ben asked with a smirk.

“Maybe. I do have a lot of vegetable related nightmares.” Leslie said a little embarrassed.

Ben carried on reading out her dreams, chuckling at some of them and pulling Leslie in closer at the sweet ones. 

“I met Ben by the Wildflower Mural and we had sex – wait what?” Ben gasped, pulling the book closer to his face.

“Oh my god. Don’t read that one!” Leslie cried, snatching the book away from him.

“Leslie Knope had a sex dream about me?” Ben chided, “When?”

Leslie blushed furiously, “It was after that day we got those burgers and met there and we talked for hours. It’s really lame I shouldn’t have written that down.”

“No I want to know more,” Ben said, giving Leslie a soft nudge on her arm.

Leslie sighed, “It was one of those dreams that were really vivid. City Hall was empty and we were both sat on that bench and we were talking. I can’t remember what about, this was like two months ago. But then we just started taking each other’s clothes off and we were kissing. It was really sweet but I kept worrying if someone was going to come around the corner and see us boning on that bench…then you turned into Batman and flew away.”

Ben smirked, “Gotham probably needed me,” he joked, “it’s pretty cool you can remember all your dreams. I usually forget mine within seconds of waking up.”

“I make sure I remember them, that’s why I have this,” Leslie said as she pointed at the journal.

“There’s one dream I remember,” Ben mumbled as he placed the journal back on the table and pulled Leslie into his chest. “And she wakes up with me every morning so it’s hard to forget her.”

Leslie beamed, “You’re talking about me?”

“Who else?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: @sakurablossomstorm-blog


	40. Rated

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've hit 40! 60 more to go!

“What the hell were you thinking? That’s not a rhetorical question, I actually want to know what you were thinking?” Leslie snapped at her three 13-year-old children, who were each looking very embarrassed.

Sonia was currently dressed in one of Leslie’s pantsuits, the lime green one to be specific, while Wesley stood next to her dressed in one of Ben’s sweater vest and a beard drawn on his face with a sharpie.

Stephen was still on a heap on the floor after somehow managing to squeeze himself into one of Leslie’s giant holdalls, he was currently suffering from severe cramp in his left leg after being cooped in there for so long.

“We didn’t know how else to get into the movie,” Sonia mumbled, looking down at the floor.

“You wait until you are seventeen for starters,” Ben snapped back at his daughter.

“I’m still completely baffled by the whole thing,” Leslie cried, pointing at each of her children in fury. “How the hell did you think you’d sneak into a R rated movie like _that?_ ”

“We thought they might let us in because we’re a Congressman and Governor’s kids” Stephen groaned, still rolling around on the floor grabbing at his leg.

“Well you’ve caused us nothing but embarrassment” Ben scolded his children.

“Not to mention you nearly gave your father a heart attack after you were escorted home in a cop car” Leslie cut in, “You know he hates cops and nearly peed himself - ”

“Back on the subject please.”

“Right. Sorry” Leslie huffed, “You three are grounded for two weeks. No TV, no Gryzzl tablets, no WIFI!”

There were three angry moans of ‘but mom’ and ‘that’s not fair’, closely followed by stomping up the stairs and three simultaneous slamming of bedroom doors.

Leslie sighed and rubbed her cheeks, “What the hell were they thinking?” She asked Ben.

Ben sat down at the kitchen island with his head in his hands, “I guess they just really wanted to see Death Canoe 8: The Canoe Strikes Back.”

“I’ll kill Donna for telling them about those films” Leslie sneered through her teeth. “I never snuck into those kind of films when I was younger, I was perfectly happy with Disney films.”

Ben grinned, “You’re adorable.”

Leslie softened dramatically. She draped an arm around her husband’s stomach and kissed his forehead. Age had done wonders to him, his beard now full and bushy with a grey streak in the middle and flecks of grey in his usually brown hair, he was a little softer around the middle too which was nice for cuddling.

Leslie knew they were getting older; her once blonde hair had silvered recently, especially after the triplets decided that they’d hit their teenage rebellion years all at one go.

“We’re still cut out for this, right?” Leslie asked, a hint of doubt in her voice.

“Totally” Ben replied, turning so he could pull Leslie into a hug, “They are nothing we can’t handle, we’ve been through way worse.”

“Where did they get this from?” Leslie sighed into his arms.

“They’ve been spending a lot of time with John recently.”

Leslie rolled her eyes, “I’m going to have to talk to Ron.”


	41. Teamwork

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Forty one! I hope you all enjoy and remember to send your comments!

“We got to do it.”

“I know but I’m scared.”

“Me too…but we have to do it.”

Leslie looked at the three carriers in the back seat of their car, each with their newborn babies inside. She took a deep breath in and closed her eyes.

They had left the hospital that morning, leaving behind all the lovely nurses that had looked after her and the babies after the caesarean and the room she had been in for a week while she recovered and the babies grew stronger. 

Now they had driven home and were situated in their drive, staring at the house she hadn’t been in since her waters broke that fateful Thursday morning. And was terrified.

Because she’d be entering that house a mother. A new role which she knew nothing about.

Ben carefully lifted up her hands and brought it to his lips, kissing her dainty hand softly.

“It’s going to be ok, we can do it.” Ben told her.

“What if we can’t? What if something happens to one of them, it’s a twenty-minute drive to the hospital, what if we don’t make it in time? What if I get an award for the worst mother ever?” Leslie babbled nervously.

Ben pressed his hands on her shoulder and calmly shushed her, “Hey, it’s going to be ok, with any luck they got my sleeping habits and your positivity, they are going to be the happiest babies ever and you are going to be an amazing mom, you’ve already proven yourself back at the hospital.”

Leslie remembered how the nurses praised her when she managed to get Stephen to latch almost instantly to feed and how she swaddled Sonia to a comfy perfection, she remembered when the doctor told her how brave and strong she had been when Wesley came out not breathing, and how he was most definitely going to make it because she had done a great job of keeping them warm and snug for the past eight months.

Ben rubbed her shoulder again, “It will be ok, we’re a team in this. With a little bit of teamwork we can overcome anything.”

Leslie gave a weary nod and placed her hand over her sore abdomen, she was still trying to get used to the fact that there were no babies in there anymore. “Teamwork” She repeated softly.

Ben nodded, “Ok, you stay here, I’m going to take them in and then I’ll come back for you, ok?”

Leslie agreed and Ben climbed out of the car, carefully lifting Stephen and Wesley’s carriers out of the car, she watched as he unlocked the door and carried them both inside.

Leslie turned to face her daughter who was fast asleep in the back, “Your daddy is a great guy” she told her, “you are going to love him so much.”

Sonia didn’t respond and Leslie reached her hand back to gently stroke her tiny foot, it was so scary thinking that they now had three humans to take care of, but Ben was right, it was all about teamwork to raise the triplets.

He soon returned and eased Sonia’s carrier out of the back, then he walked around and opened Leslie’s car door. He stretched his hand out for her to take.

“Are you ready, babe?” He asked.

Leslie gave a confident nod, “I’m ready,” She said as she took his hand.


	42. Standing Still

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the kudos and comments so far, keep 'em coming!

“I feel like I’m standing still.” Leslie fussed as she paced the bedroom.

Ben looked up from his book and smirked. “Well you’re not. You’re currently wearing out that strip of carpet.”

“You know what I mean.” Leslie growled over her shoulder and carried on pacing. “I did city council and then they kicked me out. So I went forward and now I’m back where I started. I’m standing still. Not moving forwards or backwards, I’m just…here.”

“That’s not true.” Ben interjected, placing his book on the side knowing that this was going to take longer than a few minutes to calm his wife down. “You’ve just had a little set back and that’s ok. You’ve had a taste of the life that could be, you just need to get stuck into work again and opportunities will be knocking down your door, I mean remember how you got to run for city council in the first place?”

“But no ones going to want someone who can barely hold on to a city council term for a year. That’s pathetic. I might as well just stay where I am and not move and die in that parks department office.” Leslie mumbled as she finally stopped pacing and stayed at the foot of the bed.

Ben pulled back her side of the covers and beckoned her to come join, Leslie sighed and crawled into bed next to him, immediately cuddling into his chest and nuzzling into him.

“You did some amazing projects in the parks department, don’t forget that. You’re just going back to a job that you know inside and out, that might feel like you are standing still but you aren’t. You’re just taking a different route to what you are used to” Ben said kindly as he stroked her hair.

“But April and Tom don’t need me anymore, they’ve grown up and are independent.” Leslie whined into his chest.

“They’ve grown up because you coached them to be like that, that’s a good thing. It shows you can take two trainwrecks and turn them into fully functioning human beings.” Ben told her.

Leslie shifted a little so she was looking into Ben’s eyes, “What if I never have an opportunity like city council again? I love working in government and I can’t think of anything else that I want to do.”

“Remember what Jen said last week? And what Ron said to you today?” Ben asked and Leslie slowly nodded, “You’re not going to stay in the parks department forever, you know that. It’s been a great starting point and you’ve achieved so much but you’ll get the chance to move on to bigger and better things. Jen even said you could potentially run for Congress. She doesn’t say those things lightly to people. And she’s a good contact to have, if anything comes up I guarantee she’ll think of you.”

Leslie furrowed her brows, “You think I’m good enough for Congress?”

“You’d be amazing,” Ben said lovingly as he kissed the top of her head, “I mean you might try and pass a load of bills about banning vegetables and libraries but we can work around that.”

“That’s because libraries and vegetables are dumb. But I see your point” Leslie said as she leaned up to kiss Ben’s cheek, “Thank you, I really needed that tonight.”

“You’ve got nothing to worry about, the next major opportunity for you might be just around the corner,” Ben told her.

Leslie grinned and snuggled down on her pillow, “Pawnee’s new city manager is a wise guy.”

“So wise.” Ben smirked as his eyes flickered sleepily.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: sakurablossomstorm-blog


	43. Dying

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the comments and kudos! Please leave more comments as I love reading them and they make me feel loved!

Ben was dying.

He was 100% sure he was 100% dying.

Because there was no other excuse for the way he was feeling. He had spent the most of today with his head hanging in the toilet with god only knows what pouring out of his stomach and occasionally from the other end.

There was a brief hour or so where he managed to get into work and saw Chris and Ron both in the same situation that he was in which made him feel a smidgen better knowing he wasn’t alone.

But he needed Leslie so bad. 

She had stayed with Ann last night, she had said something about Ann wanting to have a baby and they needed to talk about it. And he missed her; he needed her to help him.

He had begged and bribed April to take him home to the house and she only did it because to quote her ‘what was happening to him right now was awesome’. 

Ben arrived back at the house and sprinted upstairs and took up residence on the bathroom tiles, shaking and spluttering into the toilet bowl.

It took about an hour or so but Ben soon heard the front door opening and frantic running up the stairs. Then he heard her voice.

“Holy crap, babe!” 

Ben tried to lift his head to see Leslie but he was so weak he couldn’t. He just felt her hands go straight to his back and rub them through his next expulsion of food. His teeth chattered and he whimpered pathetically.

“Th-they betrayed me, Leslie.” Ben snivelled. 

“What betrayed you?”

“The ca-calzones.” Ben managed to choke out, finally lifting his head up to see Leslie looking horrified.

April had called Leslie to tell her all about her fiancé puking his guts out and she had come home as soon as she could. She managed to gather the story from him through dry heaves and sobs that he had been trying food for the wedding and had gotten food poisoning.

After another good hour or so of refusing to move from the bathroom. Ben’s vomiting subsided long enough for him to slump on the floor, shivering and trembling all over.

Leslie managed to pull his limp body onto her lap, she gabbed a washcloth and wiped the sweat from his forehead and ran her hands over his poor, bloated belly, causing Ben to moan and whimper in agony.

“Sorry.” Leslie quickly said, “We need to get you into bed, babe. Can you stand up?”

Ben barely managed a nod and Leslie carefully helped him to his shaky feet. She just about supported his weight as he staggered into their bed. She pressed a bucket into his hands and Ben tossed some more cookies into it.

“God as my witness…never again.” Ben wailed after he had gotten over the shock of moving from the bathroom to the bedroom.

“You don’t mean that, babe.” Leslie said kindly as he slumped against her. She rang her fingers soothingly through his hair as he trembled next to her.

For the first time that day he felt his heart rate slowing and like he could finally fall asleep without puking. He mumbled ‘thank you’s’ to Leslie as she kissed his head and let him drool over her chest.

Ok, maybe he was 62% dying.


	44. Two Roads

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the comments and kudos! They are really appreciated so feel free to leave plenty more!

“So there are two roads we could take.” Leslie said, sprawling a piece of paper out on her bed with an intricate design on it.

“Good lord, when did you draw this?” Ben asked leaning forward from his pillows.

“When you fell asleep last night.” Leslie mumbled sheepishly.

“Of course. So what are the options?”

“Ok, so there’s this road, which is you go announce to Chris that you are moving back to Minnesota but it’s ok because you found a wonderful replacement who will start tomorrow. Then you go to the nearest hair salon and dye your red and grow a moustache and get rid of every plaid shirt you own. You won’t need them anymore. Then you go to work the next day as ‘Lorenzo’, you’ve just moved from Venice and you’ve been friends with Ben for years and he trusts you with his old job. The only problem is you’ll need to learn to do an Italian accent.”

“Right…” Ben furrowed his brow. “And what’s the other road?”

“The other road is we go to Chris’s office on Monday and we come clean. Just like that… that’s it.” Leslie’s lips formed a thin line as she spoke.

Last night they both said ‘screw it’ and kissed each other in the smallest park, cementing their relationship back to how it was. They went back to Leslie’s that night and had crazy sex all night long. It was sloppy and there were a few tears, but it was perfect.

And now they had to come up with a plan to tell Chris.

“I like the second road.” Ben said, pointing to the diagram to the path that was labelled ‘just come out with it’. “I don’t have to change my appearance in this one.”

“Yeah…you wouldn’t look good as a red head.” Leslie thought.

She leaned forward and ruffled his wild dark hair, “I like brown and messy.”

Ben grinned under her touch. “So it’s settled then? We tell Chris the truth?”

“I don’t know.” Leslie whined, flopping down across the bed. “We’ll get into trouble. I don’t do well with notes on my permanent record, Ben. What’s going to happen when they fire me? I’ll die!”

Ben sat up and cupped her face in his big hands, instantly soothing her. “Leslie, nothing bad will happen to us. We’ll get a slap on the wrist and that’s it. And even if they do try to fire you I won’t let that happen, ok?”

“But what about you?”

“Don’t worry about me.” He told her, “I’ll be fine. I’m more concerned about protecting you and I’m going to do that, ok?”

Leslie nodded and took a deep breath, “Ok. Ok. We’ll tell him the truth.”

“I’d take any punishment if it meant being able to do this with you for real.” Ben said softly as he reached over to placed a kiss on her forehead.

He let go of Leslie and swung his legs off the bed. “How about we go downstairs and I’ll make pancakes.”

Leslie immediately perked up. “Chocolate chip?”

“You got it.”


	45. Illusion

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've neglected this a little bit, considering I was meant to update every day! Sorry! I hope you all enjoy this chapter though!

Leslie was never the greatest sleeper. She had managed to elude it from a young age. There was just so much exciting stuff going on around her and if she fell asleep she’d regret it if she missed something.

As she got older, sleep often found her around the 1am mark. Pulling her under for about four hours where she’d rise and be ready for the day again.

She should have been asleep right now, but she couldn’t. No matter how much her body begged her to sleep and how her eyelids fluttered wearily. She refused to let herself be pulled under by sleep.

Because Benjamin Wyatt was fast asleep next to her, and she was worried that this was all an illusion.

She was worried that if she closed her eyes for a millisecond he’d disappear, and she’d be alone in her bed, just like she had been for months now.

But with every blink of her tired eyes he was there. Still asleep, mouth parted and gentle snores escaping through the gap. His hair was still ruffled and wild on the pillow, it had remained that way after they finished the longest boning session she had ever had.

Ben Wyatt was apparently _very_ good at sex. And had no trouble at all making sure every second counted.

He had kissed her earlier today. She had gone to Chris’s office to drop off some receipts and had tried to give them to Ben when he grabbed her hand and pulled her in for a warm, long kiss.

They had both been willing to do it since their road trip to Indianapolis, but thanks to Chris’s surprise visit their plans had been out on hold.

She had thought her chance had been blown, but Ben had other ideas. Leslie had told him to follow her in his car and park a couple blocks away to avoid being detected. Ben agreed and once they had arrived in Leslie’s house they had heated sex in every part of her house.

They had rushed, first time sex on her couch, slow sex in the kitchen where he took her from behind while she tried to make them pancakes for dinner, hot, grabby sex on the landing by the stairs when they got so horned up they couldn’t make it to her room in time, and then finally tender and loving sex on her bed. He had rolled her underneath him and thrust in and out of her with a pleasurable pace, groaning into her neck as Leslie’s hand gripped his hair while he spilled into her.

It had all been so perfect, yet so forbidden. They were going to do this for real and had to keep it a secret from everyone. That’s why Leslie found this whole situation so surreal and wanted to hold on to tonight for as long as she could. Because it felt so perfect there was no way it was real.

It had to be an illusion, surely.

She ran her hand through Ben’s wild hair, combing the thick locks back while he slept. He had been the first guy in a long time who actually made sure she was comfortable and happy during sex, he made it all about her and looked after her.

Ben grunted in his sleep and opened a bleary eye. Leslie pulled her hand away quickly and bit her lip.

“What’re you doin’ awake?” Ben asked groggily.

“I couldn’t sleep.” Leslie admitted. “I can’t stop thinking about today.”

Ben grinned and wrapped his arm around her front, pulling her down onto her pillow. “Go ‘sleep.” He told her, “I’ll be here in the morning.”

Leslie really hoped he would be as her eyes finally drooped close and sleep overcame her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Come follow me on tumblr: Sakurablossomstorm-blog


	46. Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 46 is up! It took a bit of a different turn to what I was planning to write since nothing was really coming to me. So I took today's election to spice it up a little.
> 
> I'm British so I don't know the complete ins and outs of the election but I do know that Leslie and Ben would have something to say about it, so I hope you enjoy!

Leslie took a slow, steady breath inwards and stretched her fingers out, she had been clenching her fists without realising and was trying to get the feeling back in her hands.

She was anxious, excited but so very anxious. Because today she would get to vote in the second most important election of her life. The first being when she ran for City Council.

She remembered the feeling, standing in that small booth and seeing her name on the ballot, tears welling in her eyes as a feeling of want overcame her. She wanted it so badly, and sure enough she got it.

Albeit she did get recalled a year in.

But today was the second most important election of her life, the year a female president was in the running, and could win.

Sure, she wanted to be the first female president. But hey, she’d happily hand that honour over to Hilary Clinton any day.

She wondered if Hilary was feeling the same thing, of course she was. She must have this horrible feeling of worry in the pit of her stomach, probably triple what Leslie felt that day four years ago.

Watching the election unfold in front of her was like serious déjà vu. Trump was like Bobby Newport, only cruel and harsh, whereas Bobby was so simple minded he had no clue what he was doing; they were two very different people with similar tactics. They both liked scaring people into voting for them. Bobby tried with threatening that Sweetums was going to move and Trump had basically fear mongered his entire campaign.

Sure, Bobby was basically spoon fed all the information and was told to open his mouth and say the right things, but this was all Trump. He was wicked and Leslie felt a pooling hatred inside of her every time she heard his name.

“Are you ready to go, babe?”

Leslie turned to see Ben standing in the doorway, they had both taken the day off work to go vote, and then to spend the day relaxing and trying not to think about it before their election themed party this evening for their family and friends.

“Do you think she’ll win?” Leslie asked nervously.

Ben walked over and pulled his wife into a comforting hug, “Of course she will. She’s got this in the bag, don’t worry.”

“But what if she doesn’t win?” Leslie asked, looking into his deep, brown eyes, “What if we have to deal with Trump for four years?”

Ben kissed the top of her head lovingly, “Then we’ll manage. We’re a strong family; we can overcome anything that he might throw at the country. Besides, he won’t win. The guy’s a moron. It will be fine, I promise.”

“That’s what you said about Brexit.”

“Ok, ok. Well I was wrong about that. To be honest I don’t know too much about British politics but I’m right about this” Ben told her, cupping her face in his hands. “But we’ve got to get moving, our votes count, remember.”

Leslie took a deep breath and nodded, “alright, where are the kids?”

Right on cue their three monsters came running into Leslie’s bedroom screaming loudly, each of them dressed in patriotic colours, Stephen in red, Sonia in white and Wesley in blue.

“Did you do this?” Leslie asked as she scooped Wesley into her arms and kissed his cheek, causing the two year old to wiggle in her grasp and cackle loudly.

“I thought you’d like it.” Ben said as he wrangled Sonia and Stephen off their freshly made bed.

“I love it.” Leslie beamed at her husband, they managed to get their triplets in order and Leslie cleared her throat.

“Alright, monsters. Let’s go vote.” She said to her children, she was sure they had no idea what she meant but she added a positive spin to her voice so they all cheered excitedly.

“Group hug first” Ben announced as he bent down and held his arms open, allowed the triplets to bundle into him. Leslie chucked and knelt down too, wrapping one arm around Ben and the other around her monsters.

She wanted this for them; she wanted her children to grow up in a world where women could be presidents. She wanted to tell Sonia that she could be anything she wanted to be, she wanted Wesley and Stephen to have respect and treat women as equals, but at the same time be happy and successful. She just wanted the best for her family.

And she knew that they would be just fine as they went to go and vote as a family.


	47. Creation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I've neglected this story a little, so sorry about that! But enjoy chapter 47!! Nearly at the half way mark!!

“So…what exactly is that, honey?” Leslie asked as Stephen presented her with a brand new drawing.

“It’s a robot unicorn spaceship dinosaur!” Stephen babbled excitedly.

Leslie blinked as she stared at the drawing, trying to make heads or tails of it. It didn’t look like any of the things he had described, let alone all four mixed together. 

Stephen had definitely inherited her creativity, she’d give him that, most of the drawings on their refrigerator were his creations, and every day there would be something new to look at.

“Can we put it up?” Stephen piped happily, bouncing up and down.

Leslie smiled at her four year old and ruffled his dark brown hair. “I don’t know baby, we already have five of your-”

“Put the drawing on the refrigerator, for the love of God, do it!” Ben quickly hollered from the kitchen. 

Leslie looked over at her husband, who was currently slumped over the dining table, massaging his temples. She looked back at her son who was staring back up at her, his brown eyes filling with tears.

“O-of course we can!” Leslie quickly countered, earning a big toothy grin from her eldest.

She held out her hand and Stephen grabbed hold of it, “let’s do it together” Leslie said to him. 

Stephen led the way to the kitchen and pressed his drawing proudly on a space next to two of his other artworks. Once he had got what he wanted, he bolted out of the kitchen, cheering with glee as he went to find his siblings.

Leslie walked over to Ben and rubbed his back, causing Ben to raise his head slightly and look at his wife with squinted eyes.

“Headache?”

“Yeah…how did you know?”

“Wild guess,” Leslie joked as she nudged him gently. “Rough day?”

Ben rubbed his forehead with a groan, Tuesdays he worked from home and today resulted in several meltdowns from Stephen over his drawings on the refrigerator.

“If a drawing didn’t go up within seconds he freaked out, just started screaming and stomping his feet on the ground. Wesley and Sonia hid under the coffee table at one point they were so scared.” Ben recalled to Leslie. 

Leslie handed him a glass of water and two aspirin to take as he continued his rant.

“I mean I know they say we have to nurture our kids and encourage them but good lord, one day there’s not going to be enough space for any more drawings and…I don’t want to be here for that day” Ben cried out with a shudder.

“Stephen will have to learn he can’t get his way all the time.” Leslie said as she tried to soothe Ben by rubbing his shoulder. “It’s ok, you’ve done well today, and at least you can go into the office tomorrow and escape them, then it’s my turn to deal with the tantrums.”

She paused and turned to look back at Stephen onslaught of drawings and sighed.

“Then again…I give him a week to get bored of his…um…creations.”


	48. Childhood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 48! I hope you all enjoy!

“Alright. Here’s the last of your stuff,” Henry grunted as he passed Ben another box out of the attic.

He set it on the floor and pulled it open to examine the contents. Ben’s mother had asked her two boys to come over and help her clean out some of their old stuff. Her new boyfriend would be moving in with her and it gave her the ammunition she needed to call her sons back to their family home in Minnesota for a well needed clear out.

Leslie had tagged along for the weekend, so she could meet Henry and also to visit Minnesota. They had been here not too long ago when Ben was invited by the Mayor to receive a key to the city. She had hoped that this visit would be a lot happier than the last one.

And that Ben wouldn’t end up high as a kite in the hospital with kidney stones.

Ben had told her that it would be a boring weekend and not to come with him. But in all honestly, Leslie needed the distraction. The recall vote was approaching and they had done all they could and more to ensure that she wouldn’t get kicked out of office.

Yet she felt like she could have done more. 

Henry climbed down from the ladder, jumping the last few steps and landing next to Ben. The eldest Wyatt brother ruffled Ben’s thick brown hair and smirked at him.

It must be something in their genes. But Henry smirked just like Ben. They actually looked incredibly alike with their being a few noticeable differences. Henry had let his beard grow thick and bushy and was maybe a good ten pounds heavier than Ben was and was a little thicker around the middle. Whereas Ben was her sexy elf king, all narrow-framed and taut. And the handsomer of the two.

Her opinion, of course.

“What’s in the box, Benny?” Henry asked as he brushed the dust off his shirt.

“Old middle school stuff, I think.” Ben replied as he pulled out some dusty schoolbooks.

Leslie smiled as she delicately lifted one book out, what looked like his maths textbook. She blew the dust from it and opened the first page.

“Wow. All ‘A’s” She admired out loud as she flicked through the book.

“Yup. Our Benji was a little nerd.” Henry chuckled, nudging Ben’s back, causing him to reach out and smack his brother on the arm.

Leslie snickered and went back to looking through his textbook. The handwriting was faded but she could still read it all. It made her feel warm inside seeing Ben’s childhood in front of her. He had always been so closed off about growing up and now she had it all in front of her.

There had been boxes of old toys that he used to play with, including a battered stuffed elephant, which he picked up with a fondness and accidentally called it ‘Mr Trunks’, earning a raucous laugh from Henry.

“I remember this,” Ben then said pensively as he pulled a small red book from the box. “We had to write down all of our wishes in this book for the future.”

“That’s adorable” Leslie said adoringly, placing a hand over her heart.

Ben smiled and opened the first couple of pages, he read it for a few seconds and then slammed it shut with a red blush tinting his cheeks.

“What does it say?” Henry asked.

“N-nothing.”

Henry scoffed and leaned forward to take the book. Ben hugged it to his chest to stop Henry from taking it, resulting in a friendly tussle between the two brothers.

Henry cheered triumphantly as he managed to wiggle the book out of Ben’s grasp by sitting on his back. Ben gasped out, trying to snatch the book back before Henry could read it.

“One day I will marry a pretty blonde lady with a smile as bright as sunshine,” Henry read out loud and then instantly stuck his tongue out in disgust.

“Jesus Christ, dude! You were a sap!” He said tossing the book back to Ben.

But Leslie had dropped to the floor, pushing Ben’s hair out of his eyes so she could look at him.

“A pretty blonde lady, huh?” She asked with a smile spreading across her lips.

Ben grinned as he sat up, resting her hands on her thighs. “With a smile as bright as sunshine.” He repeated. “I think I got her.”

Leslie pressed her lips against his, pulling him in for a long kiss. Soon Ben’s hands snaked up around her waist and the two were hard-core making out on the floor of his mom’s house.

Henry grunted repulsively, “Alright you nerds, break it up! Don’t make me bring the hose in.”


	49. Stripes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I'm so close to half way!! One more chapter and I will be at fifty!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy! Don't forget to leave comments and kudos!

“This is insane. Just _look_ at this!” Leslie cried out as she rolled her pyjama top past her protruding belly, examining it in the reflection of the mirror.

Ben was removing the decorative pillows from the bed when Leslie started venting, he looked up with a soft smile, “What?”

“ _This_!” Leslie said again, gesturing to her pregnant belly. “My belly! It’s huge. I feel like a cow. No wait, an elephant. No! A whale! I feel like a ginormous beached whale that should just be rolled back into the ocean and left to float around…even though I wouldn’t float. I’m so fat I’d sink to the bottom of the sea instantly.”

Ben chuckled and walked over to her, wrapping his arms around her belly. “You don’t look like a whale, how can you say that? You’re beautiful.”

Leslie rolled her eyes and scoffed. “How can you say that? Just look at it, there’s stretchmarks everywhere. They make my stomach look like something out of ‘Alien’.”

“I like them.” Ben said with a shrug. “They’re like tiger stripes.”

“…Tiger stripes?”

“Yeah!” Ben exclaimed happily, letting her go and turning her to face him. “They’re your tiger stripes. And you’re not a whale. You are a beautiful tiger who’s helping our triple cherries grow inside you. And that’s an amazing thing. Those marks just show that they are getting stronger and are so close to coming into this world so we can hold them and cuddle them. Be proud of them.”

Leslie didn’t say anything; she just silently wrapped her arms around Ben. Her baby bump pressing against his stomach as she squeezed him.

“Thank you. I needed that.”

“I know you did.” Ben said kindly as he stroked her hair.

He got down on his knees and rested his hands on the front of her belly, he gently pressed his lips against the lower part of her belly where most of her stretchmarks resided and peppered soft kisses along the jagged, red lines.

She was getting tired of being pregnant, he could tell. Anyone would be cranky at this point. It had been nearly seven months of carrying three babies around at once, three babies who zapped her of her energy and caused her to eat at least six times a day. But she was doing so well, and they only had a few more weeks before she would go in for her caesarean. 

She had to hang in there a little bit longer. And he’d help her get to the final mark by showering her with affection.

Ben stood up and took her hand, leading her to their comfy bed and helped her climb on top. Then he grabbed the cocoa butter from their bathroom and settled next to her.

Leslie smiled softly at her husband as he smeared the sweet smelling cocoa butter on her belly, rubbing it delicately all around. Leslie sighed contently as Ben massaged the cream into her expanding abdomen, her hand tracing a pattern on Ben’s chest as he took care of her.

Ben grinned as he felt his triple cherries kick in response to his hand pressing down gently on her belly. They were so active, it would be hard to believe that when they would finally come out they would be so tiny and need lots of special care. But he knew that he and Leslie would love them and give them nothing but cuddles once they were born.

“This is kind of my fault,” Ben then said as he set the tub of cocoa butter back on the side. “I apparently have super sperm to have put three babies in you at once.”

Leslie smirked, “It’s half your fault and half mine. My uterus did decide to have a ‘going out of business’ sale.”

Ben helped her under the covers and pulled her into his arms, resting a palm on her belly. “Alright. It’s both of our faults. 

Leslie grinned into his chest as her hand met his, her fingers tracing along her stretchmarks.

“You know, tiger stripes are actually a cute nickname for these.” Leslie mumbled, her eyes drooping sleepily.

Ben smiled, nuzzling his face into her blonde hair, “I know. I like it too.”


	50. Breaking the Rules

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow! I've hit half way!! That's super scary because it still feels like I've got a long way to go, but it didn't take long to get to this point!!
> 
> A huge thanks to everyone who has read this story and left comments and kudos so far! It means the world to me! Please don't forget to leave more comments on future chapters, I love reading them when they come in and they make me so happy! 
> 
> I hope you all enjoy chapter 50: Breaking the Rules!

“We broke the rules! I can’t believe we actually broke them! I never break rules, never _ever_! This is not ok. I can’t handle this, we need to come clean now.” Leslie spoke incredibly fast as she paced her bedroom butt naked.

Ben was propped up on one elbow watching her with amusement, he had the loose sheets around his bare ass after they spent hours of rigorous sex after the two of them kissed for the first time in his office in City Hall.

And now after the dust had settled and they were basking in the afterglow of sex, Leslie bolted out of bed and started panicking.

“I don’t break rules. Cool kids make the rules, we don’t break them! What are we going to do? What are we going to tell Chris? Oh my god we should call him now.” Leslie babbled as she reached for her phone.

Ben was quick to act and grabbed her wrists before she could get to her phone. “Leslie, no. Come back to bed. It’s going to be ok. We don’t have to tell Chris yet. We can just stay in bed for the night and figure it out another day. Besides, it’s a stupid rule, you know that.”

“I know that, yeah. But it’s still a rule, that we broke!”

Ben tugged her back into bed, draping the sheets around her and trapping her in his arms. “Do you regret this?” He asked with a hint of concern etched in his voice.

Leslie turned to look at him. “No of course not. I’ve wanted to do this for so long. It’s just…a new situation for me. I’ve never had a secret boyfriend before.”

“Me neither…had a secret girlfriend that is.” Ben quickly countered.

Leslie nuzzled into his warm chest. No, she didn’t regret it at all. Not in a million years. Because Ben was so sweet and gentle, other than when she didn’t want him to be anymore, then he really got down to business, pounding into her hard with grunts and moans. But all the while making sure she was happy and contented with him.

That’s what she loved about this whole evening the most, the fact that he made sure she was ok.

Ben nudged her the side of her head with his chin. “We’re both terrible rule breakers.”

Leslie snickered into him and laced her fingers with his.

“We’re like Bonnie and Clyde, we should go to jail for our crimes.” Ben grinned into her hair.

“You know they didn’t go to jail, they were ambushed and shot-”

Ben quickly shhed her, “I know. I’m just kidding, babe. It will all be ok, you’ll see.”

Leslie’s heart thumped around in her chest when he called her ‘babe’. She sighed contently and leaned into his chest to finally go to sleep after hours of sex and talking.

Ben stroked her hair until Leslie’s breathing grew heavy as she fell asleep. This whole situation terrified him. He wasn’t one to break the rules either.

But for Leslie, he had a feeling it was all going to be worthwhile.


	51. Sport

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 51 down, 49 to go!! 
> 
> Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting so far! Please don't forget to comment on this chapter, they mean so much to me!

“GO SONIA! RUN!” Leslie screamed at the top of her lungs from the bleachers, jumping up and down excitedly as their only daughter sprinted across the field with a football in tow.

Sonia reached the end of the football field, throwing the football on the ground on the opposing teams line, scoring a touchdown. A huge cheer erupted from the stands, the majority of the noise coming from Leslie.

Ben was standing next to her, applauding their daughter’s triumph. As much as he loved Leslie’s enthusiasm and excitement, he was pretty sure he was going deaf because of her screaming.

Sure, he had to admit this was pretty exciting. Sonia was in her first year of High School and had already made quite an impact; she had attended the try-outs for the football team, she was mocked and laughed at but came out of it on top. The coach being so impressed by her speed and strength he recruited her to join the team immediately.

A couple of the misogynistic parents at the school were offended by the situation, how could a pretty little thing want to get down and dirty with boys in the mud. But Leslie and Ben ignored them, if Sonia wanted to play football and do something that she was good at then they were going to let her.

Plus it was pretty fun for Ben looking around and seeing all the parents who didn’t like Sonia on the team glaring at Leslie when she got over-excited.

Why did they care anyway? Their High School team had won every game since she joined. Their children were getting praise for being on a winning team. Plus the other boys on the team didn’t seem to care. After Sonia scored her most recent touchdown she was rounded by the majority of the team, they hugged her, patted her on the back and celebrated her score.

“I think I’m annoying people.” Leslie leaned over to Ben so he could hear over the crowd. She then looked over her shoulder at a group of women who were scowling at her.

Ben scoffed loudly, wrapping his arm around his wife. “Let them stare. They are just jealous, it’s not every day all three of our kids are the stars of the football game.”

It was true. It wasn’t just Sonia who was out there doing something she wanted to do. Stephen managed to sweet talk the vice principal to let him be the commentator for the games. Apparently Stephen’s smart mouth and witty comebacks were a huge hit. Everyone seemed to enjoy his enthusiasm and enjoyed his jokes during half time.

“I do worry about her though.” Ben said turning his attention back to the game, watching Sonia in a huddle. “She’s so much smaller than the rest of them.”

“She’ll be fine, I’m more worried about Wesley pulling an ankle.” Leslie admitted, jerking her head over to the edge of the field where Wesley stood with the rest of the cheerleaders.

Yes, Wesley had joined the cheerleading team. They both thought it a little strange considering he was the shyest of the triplets and cheerleading wasn’t exactly the most quiet of sports. But he seemed to have blossomed after joining, he stopped blushing whenever he spoke to girls thanks to having to lift them up most of the time and he had made a group of friends that had helped bring his personality out of hiding. A lot of the squad actually attended one of his chess tournaments and were promptly kicked out due to cheering and making too much noise. Leslie and Ben were pleasantly surprised to see that after the tournament had ended, the team were outside the school making up their own cheer for Wesley.

Ben kissed Leslie’s cheek. “Are you warm enough?” He asked, about to shift his coat off to drape around her shoulders.

“I’m great.” Leslie told him. “Oh my God! Look there she goes again! RUN SONIA!! RUN!!”

Ben looked back out at the field as Sonia charged down the field at full speed. Stephen was gabbling energetically down the microphone as she ran and Wesley was cheering and screaming eagerly.

And in that moment, Ben had to agree that all three of his children were pretty awesome and so unique. And no one could tell him otherwise.


	52. Deep in Thought

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is up! It's a little different but I hope you all like it! Please don't forget to comment and kudos!

Leslie had decided Ben Wyatt was a jerk and she wanted to spend as little time as possible with him.

Which was proving to be quite hard when Chris organised weekly meetings with the Parks Department to help them with the planning of the recently announced Harvest Festival.

That meant every Thursday morning; Chris and Ben would walk into the Parks Department. Chris would walk in first radiating positivity so bright that it rivalled the morning sun, and Ben was there behind him, frowning and mysterious.

Leslie sat across the room from him, trying to avoid sitting near him at all. Sure he had given in and allowed them to host the Harvest Festival, but with a cost, if it didn’t work out he would have the pleasure of firing each and every one of them.

He only attended these meetings to gloat, Leslie could tell in an instant.

But as Leslie presented her most recent binder (volume 24 to be exact) she couldn’t help but watch him. He was jotting down notes, and listening to her every word with an expression so interesting Leslie could only pin it as proud.

She slowly sat down after her presentation and continued to watch his face, as Tom then stood up announcing his plans to schmooze some fancy business owners in Pawnee she noticed his expression change, his brows furrowed and she could practically see the clogs in his brain whirring around.

He was thinking long and hard and the look on his face was too adorable for words. There were slight wrinkles on his forehead when he lowered his eyebrows and his nose twitched every now and then. He did this thing where he rolled up his sleeves every time he went to go and write something down on the paper in front of him.

Leslie felt her heart thump in her chest at every movement, watching Ben was almost like looking at a work of art, she appreciated every part of him and her eyes travelled along every line and curve of his face and chest. 

Then his eyes met hers, and she dropped her gaze with a blush and grabbed her coffee mug to distract herself.

Because, holy crap, she was feeling something for him, something so much stronger than hatred, something that doused the anger she had for him and replaced it with a burning affection. The kind of affection that made her want to leap across this table and kiss his stupid lips.

Wait…did she really just think that?

She swallowed hard, no, she had a Harvest Festival to think about, she had people’s jobs to think about, there was no time to think about stupid, jerky, only a tiny bit attractive Ben Wyatt.

Leslie turned her attention back to Tom and tried her hardest to listen to him, but little did she know Ben was now watching her, taking in all of the tiny details about her, the way she tucked a blonde curl behind her ear, the way she gnawed on the top of her pen before jotting something down.

He really hoped the Harvest Festival worked out, because he really couldn’t stand to fire her.

Then again, she was Leslie Knope, she’d make anything work out.


	53. Keeping a Secret

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter fifty three!! I'm slowly making my way through these!! Please don't forget to comment and kudos!

“Can you keep a secret?” Leslie asked, leaning across the sticky table at the Snakehole Lounge.

Ben set his beer back down, “I’m great at keeping secrets.” He slurred out.

In hindsight, this probably wasn’t the best conversation for them to have. Especially after they had both done several shots of tequila with Tom and Donna.

It was a Friday night and they all decided to make an impromptu visit to some bars in Pawnee. And that ended up with them all dancing like drunken fools in the middle of the crowded Snakehole Lounge.

Leslie had dragged Ben over to the bar and purchased two more shots along with a beer for Ben and a vodka coke for herself.

“There’s…” Leslie started but was cut off by drunken giggles. Ben couldn’t help but laugh himself and reached over, grabbing Leslie’s hand and squeezing it.

“Come on, you can tell me.”

Leslie bit her lower lip. God he was so handsome tonight, had he always been this handsome? She was sure when he first came to the department a few months ago he didn’t look like this. She tried to think back to what Ben looked like when she first met him but she came up empty.

All that she could think of was the guy in front of her with a goofy smile on his face and his hair all wild and messy.

And his butt…holy crap his butt! It could literally make an angel hang itself and she had no shame in admitting that she had been staring at it all night.

“I…really like your butt.” She choked out through another fit of giggles.

Ben raised his eyebrows. “You like my butt?”

“It’s a good looking butt!” Leslie said, holding her hands up in defence. “Come on, this can’t have been the first time someone has told you that?”

Ben smirked, “No you’re right it’s not!”

Leslie snatched her hand away from his and slapped his arm lightly. “Wow! Arrogant much!” 

Ben rubbed his arm and jokingly pouted as if Leslie actually hurt him. “Was that your big secret? That I have a nice butt?”

Leslie blushed. “No…it was actually…I like someone in City Hall.”

Ben felt his cheeks grow warm. “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.” Leslie nodded. “It’s a secret though! So don’t tell anyone.”

Ben mimed zipping his lips shut. “I swear I won’t tell. But only if you keep my secret?”

Leslie cocked her head to the side. “What’s your secret?”

“I…like someone in City Hall too.” Ben said, allowing a warm smile to spread across his face.

Leslie’s eyes widened, “Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Leslie! I need help!” Andy came bounding over to her, interrupting their conversation. “April’s barfing in the toilet and she won’t come out.”

Leslie gasped and jumped out of her seat. “Oh god, ok, I’ll go see if she’s ok.”

And with that she hurried off, leaving Ben revelling in the fact that both he and Leslie just practically admitted to each other that they liked each other.

They didn’t say it directly, but Ben sure as hell meant Leslie.


	54. Tower

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 54!! I hope you all enjoy and don't forget to comment and kudos!

“She won’t sleep.” Leslie said as she leant on the doorframe to their bedroom.

Ben looked up from the novel he was reading, his glasses that only seemed to make an appearance at this time of night perched on his nose. “Hm?”

“Sonia. She won’t go to sleep.” Leslie explained, folding her arms. “She says she wants Daddy’s stories about the girl in the tower.”

Ben pursed his lips with a sheepish grin. “Oh does she?”

Leslie nodded and beckoned him towards her, “Yep, come on, Wyatt. Or we’ll be up all night with her.”

Ben set his book back on the side of the table and removed his glasses, he and Leslie walked down the hall together where their eldest triplet was waiting for them. They had recently made the decision to move Sonia into her own room, so that she had time away from her brothers while she slept. It also meant the triplets bedroom wasn’t so crowded as they grew older.

However Sonia wasn’t taking it so well, she liked being in the company of her brothers, and that usually meant Leslie and Ben had a hard time of getting her to go to sleep.

Sonia was sat upright and her eyes grew wide as Leslie and Ben walked in, Ben immediately climbing onto her bed and placing a kiss on Sonia’s forehead.

“Daddy!” She exclaimed happily, “I want the story about the girl in the tower!”

“Alright, but just one, ok?” Ben told her as he lay down next to her.

Ben made the mistake of letting Sonia watch ‘Tangled’ for the first time a week ago. Now she was obsessed with it. So much so that Ben made up his own stories about a Princess in a tower. But this Princess was special; she had a magic lightsaber that she used to keep out the goblins that wanted to take over her tower. She’d thwart them with her mighty power because even though she was the Princess, she was also the strongest in all the land. Everyone marvelled in her strength, so she stayed in the tower to defend her country.

Leslie smiled as she watched Ben relay a story that he was stringing together on the spot about Princess Soniella who refused to go to sleep until the Goblin King stopped planting vegetables outside of the tower. Because no one in the land likes vegetables, they only ate waffles.

She couldn’t help but grin at Ben’s story telling. She thought about calling up her publishers who dealt with ‘Groffle the awful Waffle’ and telling them all about his Rapunzel/ Star Wars crossover adventures.

But she was sure there would be about fifty copyright rules that meant this was out of the question.

Sure enough, Sonia’s eyes finally started to droop and soon the little girl was fast asleep before Ben could finish his story, curled up under the covers and drooling on her pillow.

Ben carefully shifted himself off the bed and crept towards the door, wrapping his arms around Leslie and kissing the top of her head.

“Bedtime for us too?” Ben asked.

“No, I want to know what happens to the Princess! Does she beat the Goblin King or what?” Leslie questioned quietly as they slowly closed the door to Sonia’s room.

Ben chuckled softly. “I’m sure you’ll hear the ending another day.”


	55. Waiting

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for all the great and lovely comments so far! Here's chapter 55!

“Are you ok?” Leslie asked, she was lying on her side in her hospital bed carding her hand through Ben’s hair, his arms were resting on the side of the bed and he rested his head on top of them, he closed his eyes and relished in Leslie’s comforting touch.

Although he felt like it should be the other way around. She was the one about to go into surgery for a caesarean, he should be asking that question, making sure she was ok. 

“I’m ok” Ben muttered. “I’m just tired of waiting.”

They had gotten here at 6:30 in the morning, all ready for Leslie’s surgery, Leslie was cranky from not eating since the day before and Ben was exhausted from lack of sleep. But when they arrived at the hospital, apparently there was an emergency in one of the delivery suites, so a woman had to be rushed for an emergency caesarean, taking Leslie’s place in the queue.

And now they were waiting, it was 8:47 now, almost 3 hours of waiting to meet their triple cherries. Every now and then nurses would putter in and out of the room to check Leslie’s blood pressure and the position of the babies. Everything was fine and she was ready to go. It was just finding out when.

Leslie reached down and stroked his arm, “I know, babe. I’m tired too. I just want to meet our babies and get this over and done with.”

Her eyes widened and a hand dropped down to her belly. “Ow! Wow that was a really strong kick. I think they’re just as ready to come out too.”

Ben frowned and took a deep breath, “but are they going to be ready? I mean, we’re ready for them but are they ready for this world? They are going to be so small and helpless.”

They had both accepted the fact that their babies would have to spend a couple of days in neo-natal care while they grew stronger. If Ben had a choice he’d keep them in Leslie for another two months to finish off the nine-month gestation period, like all babies are supposed to do.

But then as he looked back at Leslie, he realised how miserable pregnancy had made her, she was tired, she missed work and growing three babies at once was proving to be incredibly uncomfortable for her.

She breathed in slowly, palming a circle against her protruding belly. “They’ll be fine, Ben. It’ll be a shock at first but the way they are currently kicking me so hard right now and basically trying to break out of my uterus, I’m pretty convinced they are going to fight all the complications of early delivery that will be thrown at them.”

Ben rested a hand on her belly and felt the energetic kicks coming from her belly. “Wow, you’re right, they are kicking hard today.”

Leslie winced as another strong kick pummelled her belly. “Yep. I told you, they are ready to come out, I wouldn’t be surprised if they are so sick of being cramped together they’re currently fighting for space.”

Ben chuckled and pressed his lips against her large belly, the fabric of her hospital gown tickling his lips. “Hey guys, we know you’re tired of being in Mommy’s tummy, but you just got to wait a little bit longer, ok? And stop kicking so hard, ok?”

Leslie giggled, but weirdly enough the babies seemed to listen and their kicks went back to soft flutters rather than booming, painful jolts.

Ben moved his head back up, resting against Leslies. “It won’t be long know, I’m sure of it.”

Just at that moment a nurse walked in with a smile on her face. “Alright, Ms Knope. We are ready to get you prepped for surgery.”

The colour drained from Leslie’s face. “Oh God” she muttered, running her hands along her face, “Oh God…ok…alright, let’s do this.”

Ben was handed scrubs to change into, he reached over and placed one last kiss on Leslie’s lips, pulling away far too soon for her.

“I’ll see you in there, ok?” Ben said, clutching the green scrubs in his hand. “Wait for me, ok?”

Leslie snickered, the colour returning to her face. “But Ben, I thought we were tired of waiting?”

Ben shook his head and chuckled, then watched as Leslie’s bed was wheeled out of the room while she went to be prepped for her surgery.

He took in a long and slow breath, this was really happening, it felt like months had passed since they arrived at the hospital this morning, but in maybe half an hour or so they’d have three beautiful babies to hold and cuddle.

He just had to think positively and pray the surgery went smoothly.


	56. Danger Ahead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 56!! Don't forget to leave lovely comments (or not so lovely, I'm not fussed!)

“I don’t know how I feel about this” Leslie admitted as she took tentative steps towards the haunted house.

“You’re not scared are you?” Ben teased, grinning at her.

Leslie quickly straightened up and scowled. “Not at all, Benjamin. I’m just being…cautious.”

The harvest festival was coming to a close, and Leslie had got the Parks Department for one last ride before the day ended. There had been discussions and one or two arguments about what they should go on, when April’s choice won, they were all going into the haunted house.

Andy led the group, with April next to him, they both laughed and hollered at the skeletons inside and joked to one another, Tom was behind them with Donna, squeaking every now and then and grabbing Donna’s arm while she just rolled her eyes. Ron followed behind, not so much as wincing at anything that jumped out at him and Leslie and Ben brought up the rear. 

Jerry didn’t go in, something about his heart, Leslie wasn’t really listening, she was too busy concentrating on the fact that Ben had been here.

He had come back after freaking out over the Wamapoke curse and blaming himself for everything that went wrong the day before. She had never felt so happy as she saw him walking towards her, and her emotions overcame her so much she couldn’t help but pull him into a hug.

The harvest festival was a success, and she was glad he was here to see it. Not to prove him wrong that they were a department that shouldn’t be cut from the budget, but because he had worked just as hard as her to help this get off the ground.

Maybe not just as hard, because she was currently running on a dangerously low level of sleep right now. But still, hard work regardless.

“You know I’m really glad you came back” Leslie admitted as they walked through the dark tunnels of the haunted house.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah. You got to see everything, and now your enjoying the…fun of the haunted house.” Leslie hesitated as she eyed a coffin warily.

“I wouldn’t really say this is fun but still…I was up for the Ferris Wheel personally,” Ben said with a shrug.

“Me too” Leslie said, smiling at him, “Maybe if it’s not too late we could ride it?”

Ben grinned, “That sounds great.”

Leslie took another step forward, setting off a motion sensor and a skeleton jumped out at her with a groan. Leslie let out a high pitched shriek and jumped, her hand flying out and grabbing Ben’s arm.

Ben couldn’t help but laugh. “Come here,” he said as he took her hand off his arm, which was currently cutting off the circulation in his elbow, and laced his fingers into hers.

“Hold on tight. I’ll protect you from the dangers ahead.” Ben joked as he led her through the darkness.

Leslie was so relieved they were plunged into almost pitch black, because she was blushing super hard right now, Ben kept doing this thing with his thumb where he’d rub it up and down her knuckle to keep her calm, and it made her stomach somersault ten times in a row.

A twinge of sadness then ran through her with a painful pang. He’d be leaving soon, sweet, dorky, numbers robot Ben would be packing up with Chris and moving on, Leslie thought she heard Chris say they were going to Snerling, that was over two hours away. 

She wasn’t sure if she was just ready to let him go just yet, he was so sweet and wonderful and she only just got to see this side of him. She couldn’t believe that this was the same guy who she called a jerk within a grand total of ten minutes of meeting him.

Ben turned around as he carried on leading her through the haunted house and protecting her from anymore jump scares. “Are you doing ok? Still with me?”

Leslie nodded, biting her lower lip. “Yeah, I’m still with you.”

She really hoped they would let her ride the Ferris Wheel afterwards, because she wasn’t done with Ben Wyatt for the day just yet.


	57. Sacrifice

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 57!! I'm picking up the pace with these! Thanks for all the lovely comments so far!

Leslie felt so guilty the morning she woke up after the trial. It wasn’t the usual feeling of guilt she sometimes got when she only baked 10 cookies instead of her usual batch of 12, damn the cookie dough for being so tasty.

This was a raw, angry, niggling pain in her chest. Because Ben, her wonderful, sexy, handsome boyfriend gave up his job for her. She was here, suspended with pay for two weeks and hopefully a campaign to go back to. He came out of this with nothing, no job and a dent to his résumé.

She was surprised to see that she was alone in bed when she woke up; Ben was usually still fast asleep whenever she woke up. She wasn’t concerned that he had re-thought his decisions and left since they were in his room at April and Andy’s. He had nowhere else to go.

It was nearing 6am. April and Andy would still be fast asleep, giving them some alone time in the messy living room. She slowly trudged out, rubbing her eyes and draping one of Ben’s plaid shirts around her tank top.

He was there, adding chocolate chips to what looked like a bowl of pancake batter. Leslie’s heart fluttered as she took in his appearance. His hair sticking up in all angles and as wild as ever. His plaid pyjamas bottoms hanging on his hips and a black shirt that accentuated the small muscles on his arms.

He looked up, sensing that he was no longer alone. “Morning,” he murmured happily, walking towards her and pulling her into a kiss. 

“Good morning, what are you doing awake? Are those pancakes?” Leslie asked hopefully.

Ben nodded, “Sure are, I thought I’d surprise you with breakfast in bed.” He admitted shyly.

Leslie wrapped her arms around his waist, feeling his taut, narrow body press against her. How could anyone be this perfect? She couldn’t think of anyone who could be this wonderful, he gave his job up for her, and now he was making her breakfast. 

It made the guilt riding over her grip her chest harder. 

“I’m so sorry about this” Leslie mumbled, “You’ve sacrificed so much for me, and now you are making me pancakes. I should be the one taking you out and showering you with gifts because this is all my fault.”

Ben’s hands rested against her face, his thumb rubbing along her cheeks. “Hey, don’t think like that. I did it because I told you that I wasn’t going to let anything bad happen to you, and I kept my word. I’ll be fine, this is nothing compared to what I’ve been through. I’d rather resign in disgrace then be impeached again that’s for sure. But I don’t want you to feel guilty over this, you don’t owe me anything. I did it because I love you, and you’ve got a shot at City Council, what kind of monster would I be if I took that away from you?”

Leslie could feel tears streaming from her eyes and Ben wiped them away with his thumb. “You are so perfect to me and you care so much about the government, I can get a job anywhere, as long as I’m with you and helping you achieve your dreams then I’m happy.”

Leslie let out a choked sob and pulled Ben back into her arms, he cradled her, gently rocking her as she sobbed against him. They were happy tears, he could tell. She cried the same way the night they spent together after they got back together.

“I love you, Ben.” Leslie managed to choke out after a while. “You are so unbelievably perfect and I’ll never forget you’re sacrificed for me.”

Ben grinned and kissed the top of her head. “For you, I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”

He probably shouldn’t have said that because Leslie soon erupted with a new round of tears.


	58. Kick in the Head

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 58! I'm nearly at 60!! 
> 
> Please don't forget to comment and leave kudos!

“I feel liked I’ve been kicked in the head.” Leslie grunted as she pinched the bridge of her nose, eyes squinting as the light of the office bore down on her.

“Same” Ben agreed, “Although maybe someone is jumping up and down on my head repeatedly, I can’t tell. It just hurts really fucking bad.”

Snakejuice had basically murdered them. Leslie wasn’t sure how she or Ben had managed to sit through several interviews for a new director of the health department, and between them they only had to leave the room eight times to vomit.

Ok, maybe that wasn’t the best way to conduct an interview. But they were so hungover Chris had decided to reschedule Ann’s interview for tomorrow, claiming that she was the best candidate out of the bunch.

And now Leslie and Ben were curled up on the floor of her office, Ben on one end near Tom’s desk and Leslie next to hers.

“I really don’t want to go back to April and Andy’s” Ben admitted with a groan. “God knows what they’ll be doing, I can’t handle it today.”

“You don’t have to” Leslie quickly said. “You can come back with me? It’s technically the weekend now anyway, you can crash round mine and then when you feel a bit more alive tomorrow you can go home.”

Ben was still reeling in the effects of last night, and also in the new of Ann telling him that Leslie liked him. He’d happily reciprocate those feelings but he needed to hear it from her first, plus if he confessed any romantic feelings right now it wouldn’t be great if he vomited, which was a very strong possibility right now. 

Leslie finally managed to push herself up. “Come on, Wyatt. We’re getting a cab back.” She said as she reached out for his hand to help him onto his feet.

~

The cab drove them back to April and Andy’s first so Ben could grab a change of clothes, he was a little relieved to see April and Andy passed out on the sofa, but was not impressed to see a puddle of puke on the floor. He was most definitely not sticking around to clean that up. The cab continued to Leslie’s and there was one unscheduled vomit-stop during the journey.

When they finally arrived the two stumbled exhaustedly up the stairs and to her bedroom. Leslie immediately lying down on it fully clothed. 

Ben almost started crying at the sight of her bed, despite her home being a crazy hoarders next, that bed looked insanely comfortable and practically begged for a couple to lie on it together and sleep happily.

He wanted to curl up on it with Leslie next to him; he wanted it more than ever.

As if sensing his wants, Ben’s legs started acting on their own, stepping towards the bed and easing himself onto it, curling around Leslie’s body.

“Is this ok?” He asked nervously as he slowly wrapped his arms around her.

Leslie hummed contently. “It’s just fine, I’m not going to turf you out when we are both like this, we are both extremely hungover and we just need sleep.”

Ben couldn’t argue with that, and soon the two were fast asleep and snoring the world away at 4:30 on a Friday.


	59. No Way Out

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> How have I only got 41 chapters left? Feels like a lot but I know it won't be!! 
> 
> Please don't forget to comment and kudos, they make me so happy!!

Leslie could hear her heartbeat in her ears as Ben’s Saturn drove them into the parking lot at City Hall, it was so loud and echoed around her head, like her heart was no longer a part of her body but an annoying, buzzing reverberating reminder that everything was going to change today and probably for the worse, no, definitely for the worse.

Ben put the car into park and looked over at her. “Are you ok?” He asked, reaching over and taking her hand in his.

“I don’t know” Leslie whispered. “I want to know what’ll happen to us before we go in, whether it will be ok or if we’ll both be jobless by the end of it.”

She swallowed and leaned back, turning her head to face Ben. “I won’t go back on what I said, I’m in this for real. But…fuck…I’m terrified, Ben.” 

They were going to tell Chris today. They were going to walk into his office hand in hand and tell him all about their relationship. Their relationship that was forbidden because Ben was her boss, but they just liked each other too damn much to ignore their feelings. He had to understand that, you can’t choose who you love. It just happens.

Leslie’s eyes met Ben’s, and she could see the fear circling them, making his usually chocolate brown eyes tremor anxiously. He was just as worried as she was about everything.

She hated this rule, it was so ridiculous. Sometimes she thought if things would’ve been different if they realised their feelings way back when they were planning for the Harvest Festival. Would Chris pick someone else over him for the Assistant City Manager job and tell Ben it was nothing to do with him but because he was in a relationship with her? It was so hard to tell, and she wished she could just take a peek into the what might’ve been just to see.

There was no way out of their punishment, no matter how much she argued against it, rules were rules, cool people make the rules, they don’t break the rules, as she would say.

Ben’s thumb rubbed against her knuckle soothingly. “It’s going to be ok, I promise. I’m not going to let them do anything to you.”

He sighed, wishing to make all the hurt and uncertainty go away. “It might be a rocky month or so…it will hurt your campaign, that’s for sure. But you know that I’m going to be there right? Every step of the way, you have my word.”

Leslie could feel the tears stinging the corners of her eyes and a couple slipped out, causing Ben to reach up and swipe them away with his thumb. He leaned over, pressing his forehead against hers and kissing her softly.

“It’s going to be ok” he said once more.

Leslie slowly nodded. “I hope so, God I hope so. And I’m going to do everything I can to help you too.”

Ben smiled sadly. “We’re stuck together now.”

Leslie couldn’t help but giggle. “There’s no way out now, buddy. You’re stuck with me…at least until I win the election. Then I’ll have a string of admirers.”

Ben smirked. “I’ll be fighting them off with a stick.”

He pursed his lips and pulled away, reaching over to open his car door. “Alright then, let’s do this.”

Ben stepped out of his car and walked over to Leslie’s side, opening the door for her. She got out and the couple walked into City Hall hand in hand, ignoring the looks from everyone that walked past them.


	60. Rejection

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 60! Holy crap! 40 more to go, that's so insane!!
> 
> Don't forget to leave comments and kudos!

“What the hell is this?”

_Oh no._

Ben grimaced as his office door swung open and an extremely red faced Leslie Knope stormed in, slamming a piece of paper in front of him.

“You’ve _rejected_ my recent parks proposal?” She hollered, her nostrils flaring in pure rage.

“I had to” Ben said, standing his ground. “First of all, you have no place in proposing anything parks related, because the government still has no money and like I’ve said before, parks is not a priority. And second, you’re still planning a harvest festival, you surely can’t have time to work on that, a project that’s meant to be saving your department, and also this…a park which is dedicated to…Lil Sebastian, I mean who the hell is Lil Sebastian?”

Leslie was so enraged she couldn’t even answer his question. “This park is a project to start after Harvest Fest. I made that quite clear in the binder I sent you along with my request.”

Ben sighed as he remembered the binder entitled ‘Park Wars – The Parks Department Strikes Back’. Sure he appreciated the ‘Star Wars’ reference but he knew it was only there to butter him up, and it wasn’t going to work.

“I’m sorry, Leslie. But there’s not enough money for a new park at the moment. We’re just about pushing the boat out with Harvest Fest, so…I don’t know…deal with it?”

Leslie’s face creased and Ben thought she’d either burst into tears or start screaming at him again, but instead she let out a huge sigh and slumped down in the empty seat next to his desk.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled. “I’m just getting ahead of myself. But I’m too excited to focus on just one project. Usually I have like eight on the go at once. Do you not know how much this is killing me?”

Ben softened slightly and rubbed his hands along the side of his face. “Look on the bright side of this, I get that you are a hard worker and you like to keep busy but…take this in your stride and put all this tension and energy into the Harvest Festival, not because you want to but because your job is depending on it, the Parks Department will be cut if it’s not a success and I want to be able to stand here and say that you proved me wrong and that I was stupid to even consider taking the department away. I want to see this go well, and that’s not going to happen unless your heart and soul isn’t in it by 200%. There’ll be days when things are slow and not going the way you planned it, but there will also be days where Harvest Festival is the only thing people can talk about. So hang in there…and I don’t want to see anymore requests about new parks here until Harvest Festival is over and has been a huge success, got it?”

The hints of a smile twitched in the corner of Leslie’s lips and she bowed her head slightly. “Got it…thanks, Ben. Sorry I just got a little ahead of myself. But…I really needed that. So…I owe you one.”

She gathered her things and went to leave the office, but Ben was still fixated on the binder that she sent him. “Hey, Leslie? Who is Lil Sebastian?” he asked again.

Leslie just smirked. “He’ll be at Harvest Fest. Don’t worry, you’ll meet him soon enough.”

Ben wasn’t sure if he wanted to meet the person who should have a park dedicated to him. But if it made Leslie happy then he’d suck it up for her.

Wait…did he really just think that?


	61. Fairytale

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We're in the sixties!! Not long now until I hit 100!!
> 
> Don't forget to comment and kudos!

“Daddy, can I sleep in your bed” A quiet voice came from the door.

Ben looked up and saw Sonia standing in the doorway, clutching her stuffed zebra in both hands and dressed adorably in her paw print pyjamas.

“Why don’t you want to sleep in your own bed?” Ben asked, beckoning the five year old over to him.

“I miss Mommy” Sonia whimpered as she held her arms out for Ben to hoist her into bed next to him. “And Stevie and Wesley.”

Ben and Sonia were currently in their place in Washington, Ben had to go for urgent congress business, he would have happily taken Leslie and his sons with him too, but his identical boys were currently fighting off a wicked bout of flu, and Leslie though it would be best to stay at home and look after them while Ben took their healthy triplet away with him.

But now he regretted it, hearing that his daughter missed her mom hurt him, not because he wasn’t good enough for her to be content without her, but because he missed her too, and his sons. It didn’t feel right being separated, even if it was only for three nights.

“Alright, you can sleep in here, but just for one night, ok?” He was strict on this, he never usually let the triplets sleep in their bed now that they were getting older, partly because the way they were growing so fast there would be no room in the bed for all five of them.

Good lord, they were growing like weeds, Ben thought to himself as he watched Sonia clamber under the covers.

“When will we see Mommy?” Sonia sniffed as she leaned against Ben’s arm and he wrapped his arm around his little girl.

“Soon, baby. I promise.” He told her as he rubbed Sonia’s back. “Are you going to be able to sleep?” He asked her.

“I’m not sleepy.”

Ben thought for a moment. “How about we get that book out that you got at the airport?”

Sonia instantly lit up and nodded. Ben leaned over and pulled out the brightly covered Fairy-tale book that Sonia begged him to buy at the airport before their flight. He couldn’t help but cave; she was his little girl and she had Ben wrapped around her little finger.

Ben handed her the book and she flicked it open to the first story, which was Hansel and Gretel.

“How about you read?” Ben asked her. “You can show me how good your reading has gotten.”

Sonia nodded enthusiastically and she began to read, it was slow and broken and Ben had to jump in and help her pronounce some of the more difficult words. But she already had so much emotion and inflection to her voice. Ben could tell she was going to be a great speech giver one day.

Soon enough Sonia dosed off against him, the book still sprawled out in front of her. Ben carefully closed it and set it back on the table. But not before taking this moment to pull out his phone and snap a photo of himself next to the sleeping Sonia.

He sent the photo to Leslie with the caption ‘We miss you, Mommy.’

The phone rang almost instantly and Ben quickly answered it before the ringtone could wake Sonia.

“Hey, careful, you could’ve woken our sleeping beauty” Ben said into the phone with a hushed tone.

“I’m sorry, I just wanted to hear your voice” Leslie replied. “She looks so cute and I miss you so much.”

“I miss you too,” Ben said sadly. “How are our boys?”

“Better” Leslie said. “Wesley’s fever finally broke and Stephen managed to keep his food down all day, finally a breakthrough.”

“I’m glad…its only two more days and we’ll be back home,” Ben told her, and Leslie sighed loudly.

“I know. Let’s not do this again, ok? I miss you too much” She mumbled.

“I miss you too, babydoll. But get some sleep, ok? I better go before we wake Sonia.” Ben said, as he looked over at his sleeping daughter.

“Alright. I love you, Benjamin. I’ll speak to you tomorrow” Leslie said, her voice breaking slightly and Ben could tell she was trying not to cry.

“I love you too, Lesliemin. Please don’t cry.”

“I’m not!” Leslie quickly defended herself. “You’re crying.”

Ben chuckled softly. “I’ll speak to you tomorrow. Sleep tight.”

He hung up as Leslie said goodnight to him and he set his phone back down on the table. He settled down next to Sonia and closed his eyes, thinking about the fairytale book.

He didn’t need a book to tell him that he was living a fairytale. He just needed to get back to his perfect family to carry on living the dream.


	62. Magic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 62 is up! Please don't forget to comment and kudos! They mean the world to me!

Sometimes words failed Leslie when she wanted to describe her husband.

Ben was…wonderful, doting, affectionate. All those things and more. He had given her everything she had ever wanted in life, a nudge in the right direction for her career, a home, a family, millions of perfect memories that were forever burned into her memory and captured in the hundreds of scrapbooks she had collated over the years.

But yet there was something about him that she couldn’t quite put her finger on, and after ten years of marriage and three nine year olds, she still struggled to find that word to describe her handsome, dashingly perfect husband.

He was amazing with the kids. Ben worked a lot but still had that balance just right where he could come home and help Stephen with his math homework and have Sonia excitedly tell him about a sleepover she had been invited to at the weekend and discuss rumours for the newest Star Wars film with Wesley that he had heard at school that day.

Leslie loved to watch Ben with their children; he was such an amazing father and had no doubts. He was firm, but fun. And they adored him, she could tell by the way they looked at him.

But what was that word? It was on the tip of her tongue, and she felt it constantly, it just seemed to fail her.

Tonight, she walked towards her bedroom after kissing her children goodnight. When she got there she was welcomed with the scent of vanilla candles, and Ben leaning over their bed, sprinkling rose petals on it.

He had decorated their bedroom with scented candles, flowers, and she spied a box of chocolate on her bedside table.

“What’s all this?” She asked in surprise as Ben took her hands and led her towards the bed.

“Just a little something to help you unwind” Ben explained. And Leslie had to agree there; she really did need to unwind. It had been a hard and stressful week of flying from Washington to Pawnee working on her Governor campaign. It was plenty of late nights and being away from her family sucked, she really needed this night.

“We can do whatever you want,” Ben told her. “We can just lie in bed eating chocolates, or you can have a bath, or we can have sex or we can even just go to sleep if you want? Even though that probably not even an option for you.”

The thought of jumping her husband’s bones right now did seem enticing, but Leslie had to admit she was pretty exhausted, and that was something she didn’t admit lightly.

“I like the first option, cuddles in bed and chocolate” Leslie said, and Ben pulled back the covers while she took off her blouse and pants, leaving her just in her underwear. Ben led her towards the bed and she climbed in, sighing as the comfort washed over her.

Ben settled down next to her, grabbing the box of chocolates and opening it up, feeding Leslie a chocolate truffle at her request. This last for about maybe half an hour, before Leslie found a sudden burst of energy rush through her that certainly hadn’t been there hours ago and pull Ben into a heated kiss.

He tasted like wine and chocolate as he moved closer to her, carefully pressing himself on top of her and his tongue exploring her mouth.

It was just as Ben eased into her when it finally came to her, as she felt her fingertips tingle and her heart burst with emotion and love.

Magic. Ben was magic, and he made her feel magical.


	63. Do Not Disturb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 63 and this is most definitely NSFW!!

_‘That’s strange’_ Leslie thought as she stared at the door in front of her, the door to Ben’s office to be exact. Right now his usual ‘open door policy’ wasn’t in applicable and his door was very much closed, with a ‘do not disturb’ sign on it.

Do not disturb? What could he possibly be doing in there that was so important not to be disturbed?

She frowned. All she wanted to do was go to visit her husband in his swanky new City Manager’s office and tell him her new plans for opening a Farmer’s Market in Pawnee, but that was kind of hard to do when there was a sign on the door telling her not to bother him.

But it also made her want to barge in there and demand his full attention even more so. 

She very carefully pressed her ear against the door and listened intently, sure enough she could hear Ben’s voice, he was using his business and authoritative voice that she loved so much, and she could hear a voice come back in response. But this voice was muffled and a little crackly.

Oh, he was on a conference call. That would explain the do not disturb sign, Leslie though as she finally put the pieces together.

But as she carried on listening to Ben’s voice through the door, firmly telling the recipient about future budget proposals and potentially meeting with Snerling’s government, she couldn’t help but think about how amazingly awesome her husband was. How he was so confident and smart when it came to his job, how he didn’t take shit from anyone but was still fair and a good, kind boss. 

And all she could think about now was how amazing it would be to just walk in there and make out with him during his conference call.

Ok, maybe not make out with him, he’d need his mouth to talk after all. But his penis would most definitely be free.

She smiled sneakily; oh she was totally up for going in and giving her sexy, elfish husband a blowjob while he carried on with his conference call. It was so naughty, but with that sign on the door she knew that no one would come in.

Leslie pushed the door open without a second though and locked it behind her, causing Ben to spin around on his chair with a glare, ready to reprimand the person who was interrupting him, but then that changed to concern when he saw it was Leslie.

He grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled ‘are you ok?’ on it and handed it to her, all the while he was discussing new security measures that were being installed on City Hall’s computer systems.

Leslie took the pen and scribbled back ‘just fine’ on it, causing Ben to give her an even bigger confused stare. That soon turned to pure shock as Leslie dropped to her knees and started unbuckling his belt. 

Ben tried to push her away, grabbing the paper and writing in block capitals _‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING?’_

Leslie giggled quietly, ‘you need to relax, and keep your cool.’ She fought back and worked her way back onto Ben’s thighs, easing his slacks down ever so slightly, feeling her insides bubble with glee to see that Ben was already sporting a semi.

Oh yeah, so much for acting all shocked and like he didn’t want this, he so did, Leslie could tell. Ben remained as calm and professional as he could, but Leslie could see his eyes rolling to the back of his head and his mouth parting as a silent groan escaped his lips while she took him into her mouth.

Leslie was amazed at his control, how he could carry on talking to this random guy on the phone about the recent sewage problem that they had gotten under control with no hint in his voice at what was happening, all while the tops of his thighs shook and his hand fisted into her hair, tugging at the strands and finally releasing into her mouth after a few muffled grunts into his hand.

He covered it by coughing loudly and apologising, as Leslie sat upright, wiping the corners of her mouth and handing Ben some tissues to clean up. 

It took another fifteen minutes before the conversation finally ended. Ben wished the receiver (who she found out was Howard Bridges from Bloomington) a good day and pressed end call on the phone, he immediately frowned at her.

“Care to explain why you tried to interrupt my very important conference call to suck my dick?” Ben asked, a hint of amusement in his voice.

‘Oh yeah, he totally enjoyed it,’ Leslie thought as she just smirked at Ben.

Thankfully he grinned back at her, beckoning her back over to him.

“I’ll keep that sign on my door for a little longer then” he murmured as he hitched her skirt up towards her thighs.


	64. Multitasking

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Christmas Eve everyone!! Here's some Christmas Eve fluff for you all, and Leslie being super stubborn.

“Uh, Honey?” Ben called nervously. “I think we have a code brown.”

He then grimaced at the smell hitting his nostrils, and winced and the sound of two newborns both screaming their heads off. “Scratch that, I think we have two code browns.”

“Can you take care of it?” Leslie called, poking her head round from the kitchen. “I’m kind of wrapped up in here.”

Ben groaned, ok sure he had been avoiding dirty diaper duty like the plague because it was disgusting, and also Leslie didn’t want to miss any moment with their babies so she actually opted to change all diapers. Ben was thankful he barely got a look in.

But now, they were both preparing for the Christmas celebrations round theirs tomorrow. They had always planned to cook and host Christmas dinner at their place, but they weren’t expecting their babies to make a sudden and early appearance a couple of weeks ago.

Leslie was still in the process of recovering from her caesarean, and the babies were all still so tiny and had only been released from the NICU last week, but she still insisted on hosting Christmas. 

Everyone tried to stop her. Her Mom told her that everyone could come to hers, Ann offered to book a table at a restaurant last minute and even April offered to cook, although she said she would only cook pizza and fishsticks.

But Leslie was relentless, she had planned Christmas round hers and nothing was going to stop that, minor surgical procedures were nothing, and the babies would sleep through most of the celebrations, plus she wanted to make the triplets first Christmas an extra special one.

Ben was beginning to regret everything as he carefully lifted out Stephen and Wesley from their cribs. Sonia was seemed peaceful and clean diapered, and ignored her brothers’ meltdowns. 

Ben gagged as he lay his two boys on the changing table, the smell was toxic and he had never smelt anything so bad in his life, and he lived with April and Andy for a short while of his life. But still, it was his duty as Dad to suck it up and change their poopy diapers.

“Ok, ok” he cooed to his sons as they continued to wail loudly. He scrambled to grab two clean diapers and started with Wesley, who seemed to be more stressed out than Stephen. 

In a couple of seconds, Wesley was now clean diapered and his cries subsided as Ben moved to Stephen, poor Stephen was now red in the face from crying so much, and Ben worked quickly to change his diaper.

Finally, he had two tiny babies all cleaned up and starting to doze back off to sleep. He carried them back downstairs and towards the crib when he saw Leslie somehow managed to peel potatoes with one hand, and Sonia tucked into her other arm.

Ben rested Stephen and Wesley back into their bassinettes and hurried into the kitchen, taking the peeler from Leslie.

“Sorry” she mumbled as she gave Sonia her full attention. “I think she got lonely without her brothers so she started crying and…I didn’t know what to do.”

Ben carried on peeling the potatoes for her. “Are you sure you want to do this? It’s not too late to cancel, I’m pretty sure your Mom bought a back up turkey just in case.”

“No, no way” Leslie immediately replied. “I wanted to host Christmas, and we are still doing it. Even if the babies hadn’t been born I still would have prepared this while pregnant with them. It’s fine, the prep is nearly done, we can just put everything into the oven, I’ve worked out all the times, plus Ann’s coming from Michigan, I can’t cancel on her now.”

Ben set the peeler back down on the side and wrapped Leslie up in his arms, careful not to squish Sonia, who was now slumbering against her mother.

“I understand, but maybe we should call it a day? You still need to rest, you’ve technically still got two weeks of resting to do, I shouldn’t have let you out of bed really.”

“I’m fine, Ben. Anyway, it’s good practice, we need to learn to multitask and this is a good way to break us in!” Leslie exclaimed.

“What? Cooking the most notoriously stressful meal in all existence?” Ben smirked at her.

“No, just in general, think of all the times there will be dirty diapers during dinner or when we are in the shower, tomorrow is going to be great, I promise” Leslie told him as she rested against him.

Ben sighed. “Promise me you’ll at least accept help if it is offered to you? Ideally I want to keep you on that couch all day and have everyone else run around for you.”

Leslie grinned. “Okay, that actually sounds pretty good.”

Ben chuckled and gave her a tender kiss on the lips, one that made Leslie sigh with heavenly bliss. He then guided her out of the kitchen. “Right, you said prep was all done, I vote we take our stinky monsters and have Christmas Eve snuggles in bed, what do you think?”

“That sounds perfect” Leslie replied as she watched Ben scoop Wesley and Stephen back up into his arms.


	65. Horror

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie & Ben decide to watch a scary movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for all the comments and kudos so far! I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

“So why are we watching this again?” Ben asked as he watched Leslie tinker with the DVD player.

“Because I missed it when _someone_ decided to call me up and tell me about how he was possibly going to move to Florida to run another big shot campaign, and then I wasn’t really in the mood to watch Death Canoe: Murder at Blood Lake” Leslie explained as she turned around and smirked at Ben.

He tossed a pillow at her, causing her to shriek and throw it back at him. “Well that _someone_ didn’t mean to. And he made it up to you, he proposed to you after all, didn’t he?”

Leslie grinned and looked down at her hand, she always seemed to do that when anyone brought up their engagement. “That’s very true, but I still want to watch the film. Donna says it’s great and I’m very curious about it.”

“But isn’t it meant to be…terrible?” Ben asked a little cautiously.

“According to Donna it’s not” Leslie replied as she turned off all the lights around them, plunging the lounge into darkness with nothing but the glow from the TV to guide Leslie to the couch. She settled next to Ben, and he immediately wrapped his arm around her while she nestled into him and pressed play on the remote.

Ben was about to counter by looking up the rating online but he thought better of it. Leslie seemed pretty keen on seeing the movie and he wasn’t going to complain. Plus it meant keeping Leslie grounded next to her for a good two hours while they watched the film.

He wasn’t the biggest fan of scary movies, but for Leslie he’d watch anything. And as the terrible horror movie of the eighties started up with poor graphics and terrible dialogue, he thought he’d be in the clear. This wouldn’t be scary at all, if anything, it would be funny and Leslie would tell him off for laughing.

That was until about ten minutes in, when the canoe was about to take its first victim. He didn’t notice Leslie shift slightly next to him until it was too late.

“BOO!”

“FUCK!”

Ben tumbled off the couch with a loud thud and Leslie cackled loudly as she scrambled to turn on the lamp next to the couch.

“Why did you do that?” Ben asked as he clutched his chest, feeling his heart beat about five times faster than usual.

“Fun!” Leslie announced through her giggles. She finally managed to hold out a hand and help Ben climb back on the couch as he looked around, wide-eyed and wary.

“Right. Now that you’ve got that out of your system, can we carry on watching the film?” He asked as his heart rate finally slowed down.

“Yes, of course.”

“And you promise you’re not going to do that again?”

“I promise” Leslie deadpanned as she pressed play on the remote. “I won’t do it again.”

But she did. Three times.


	66. Traps

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie and Ben set mousetraps.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for all the comments you have left so far! They mean the world to me!
> 
> I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

“Hi.”

“Hi.”

“What are you doing?”

Leslie sat back on her knees and blew a piece of hair that had fallen in front of her face out of the way. “Apparently Andy has been keeping snacks in April’s desk, and now we have mice” she explained as she carefully nudged a trap into place.

“Oh” Ben mumbled, watching her work. “That’s…great.”

“Yep. Because this is exactly how I want to spend my Friday nights” Leslie mumbled, “Cleaning up after those two while they have a great honeymoon. I’m very happy for them, don’t get me wrong, but I have a life too. I don’t want to be here setting up mousetraps, I want to be at home doing paperwork in bed while listening to Spice Girl CDs.”

Ben snorted and Leslie shot an angry glare at him.

“Don’t laugh. It’s a perfectly reasonable way to spend a Friday night, especially after a busy week at work.”

“Alright, I’m sorry” Ben said, holding his hands up in defence.

Leslie turned back to the traps and sighed again. “So do you regret staying here yet? With the impending mice outbreak?”

Ben smiled softly. “Of course not. I like it here. And don’t worry about the mice. You’re talking to the new Assistant City Manager, I’ll make sure it’s taken care of first thing Monday morning.”

Leslie grinned. “Even if that means getting rid of all the morons that work in Animal Control?”

“For you?” Ben replied. “I’d do anything.”

His eyes then widened at his words and he cleared his throat anxiously and turned away so that Leslie couldn’t see the embarrassing blush that now covered his cheeks.

“Um…so do you want any help with those? Might as well get a head start,” He said as he gestured at the pile of unset traps.

Leslie gave him a toothy grin. “I’d like that, how about you take some and go by Jerry’s desk. I’m sure they’ve probably been rooting round there as well. You know I once found an old banana in one of his files? It was pretty gross.”

Ben chuckled and took some of the traps and started to set them. Sure it wasn’t exactly the Friday night he had planned either, he was going to finish up his new Star Trek fanfiction.

But spending Friday night setting mousetraps with Leslie and laughing along with her at stupid jokes they made was just perfect.


	67. Playing the Melody

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I struggled so hard with this chapter, nothing really came to me and then suddenly this just kind of fell into place (after starting and re-starting about eight times!)
> 
> Comments and kudos make me very happy!

Ben grumbled as he picked up a handful of April’s laundry that she had left lying around, and put them in a nearby wash basket. All he wanted was to have a nice romantic meal with Leslie in the dining room like regular couples.

The only thing that differentiated them from regular couples was that they were in a secret relationship, but still the two of them were tired of hiding in Ben’s room all the time.

They could have gone to Leslie’s place, but her dining table was currently occupied by her most recent birdhouse project. Birdhouses with two floors.

Ben picked up Andy’s guitar that was lying on the table for some reason and went to put it in Andy’s room when Leslie walked out, and smiled at the sight of him with a guitar in his hand.

“You look like a sexy rock star” she smiled as she leaned against the doorframe.

Ben looked down at the guitar and wrinkled his nose. “Yeah? This doing it for you?”

“A little” Leslie said as she walked towards him. “Can you play anything?”

Ben immediately shook his head, silently cursing his parents for not forcing him into learning how to play an instrument. 

“Try” Leslie said, taking a seat at the table.

Ben held the guitar in his arms and strummed randomly, the tune sounded like nothing and Leslie giggled at his failed attempt to play. 

“Alright m’dear, what should I sing? I know the entire back catalogue of Mouserat. I could do ‘5000 Candles in the Wind’ or ‘The Pit’ and I think I know all the lyrics to ‘Sex Hair’ after hearing Andy sing it to April every time they have sex” Ben said grimacing at that thought as he adjusted the guitar.

Leslie cackled loudly. “I’m surprised you don’t want to play something by U2 or R.E.M.”

“No, their songs are too good and don’t deserve to be murdered by me” Ben replied, and strummed again, playing a very out of tune melody.

“I have no idea what I am doing here,” Ben admitted and Leslie giggled again, finally relieving him of the guitar and placing it in Andy’s room.

“Alright, so what’s for dinner tonight?” she asked when she returned, wrapping her arms around his waist.

“I’m going to make chicken cacciatore with greens” Ben told her and grinned as Leslie groaned loudly at the mention of vegetables.

“Come on, you’ll love it, you love my cooking” Ben said as he turned and kissed her forehead.

“I only like it when you don’t put gross vegetables in it” Leslie remarked as she followed Ben into the kitchen.


	68. Hero

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 68! And it's NSFW!
> 
> Thank you so so much for all the positive and lovely comments I received on the previous chapter. They really meant a lot to me especially since I struggled with that chapter. I hope you all enjoy this one too!
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated!

Leslie marvelled at Ben when they got home that night.

She couldn’t help it; she just couldn’t tear her eyes away from him after what he had just done for her. He had _punched_ a guy for her because he called her a bitch. Something inside him snapped when she was insulted, and he just lurched forward, punching that stupid Derek square in the face.

Well…he kind of stumbled while he punched him. But it was still so honourable.

She pounced on him to make out with him as soon as she realised what he had done, and then several times after that once the police had been and gone. 

Ben was trembling when they got back, his hand still nursed by the bag of ice Ann gave to him back at the bowling alley. He staggered wearily into Leslie’s bedroom, his eyes still wide with all the adrenaline that was still pumping through his veins. 

Leslie followed him; there was something so sexy about him tonight. He was like a knight in shining armour, coming to rescue her from jerkfaces like Derek.

He was her hero.

“I’m going to resign” Ben said bluntly as he looked back down at his sore hand.

“No you’re not,” Leslie whispered, climbing over and straddling his lap.

Ben tried to push her off, but Leslie was incessant. She wrapped her arms around his neck to keep himself steady and peppered kisses along his jawline.

“I’m going to resign” Ben said again, trying to find confidence when he spoke.

“You won’t” Leslie returned, a little defensively. “I won’t let you. Not after that.”

She straightened up, cupping Ben’s face in her hands and bringing their foreheads together.

“I can’t believe you did that for me” she murmured, and Ben’s eyes softened slightly. “Someone insulted me and you punched them. I can’t express how fantastically super awesome that was. You’re my hero, Ben, and you shouldn’t panic about the consequences that this will have on your or my campaign, because it was so unbelievably heroic.”

Leslie leaned in again, pressing warm kisses into his neck, and Ben groaned tenderly against her touch. She pushed his shoulders gently and he lay down against her floral sheets.

“You did that for me” Leslie repeated again, as her nimble fingers whipped through the buttons of his shirt, undoing them with desperation.

“He just made me so mad” Ben managed to get out through moans as Leslie kissed along his chest, her tongue circled his bellybutton and she nuzzled against the hairs trailing downwards.

“I love you so much” Leslie continued as she deftly worked the belt on his pants, loosening it so she could pull them down, and she smiled as Ben’s hard cock sprung free. 

Ben wasn’t sure when she had gotten so aroused, it was probably a building thing since he punched Derek. But Leslie shifted her legs, and impaled herself on top of him.

It was a little awkward at first, he tried to hold on to her to keep her steady but found it a little hard with one hand out of action while she rocked against him, moaning about how big he felt when she rode him.

Leslie clung onto his shoulders, keeping herself steady while Ben’s fingers found her clit, rubbing it fiercely with his good hand. She gasped out and fell forward as Ben sent her over the edge, following not too long afterward.

They stayed there for a good ten minutes afterward, Ben softening inside her and letting Leslie lie on his chest while she caught her breath.

Slowly, she anchored her head upwards towards Ben’s ears and kissed his lobe sweetly.

“You’re my hero,” she told him, her voice barely a whisper.

Ben wished he could pin her down and fuck her again. But his hand was throbbing, and sleep was trying to drag him under. All he could do was stroke her blonde curls and kiss her head.

“I know.”


	69. Annoyance

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I spent most of the day at work planning the last 30 chapters of this! So they should be coming once a day now (hopefully...unless I'm busy or get distracted.)
> 
> Thank you all so much for the comments and kudos so far! They mean the world to me and make me so happy!

Benjamin Wyatt was a stupid jerkface.

There, she said it. It was out in the open. But he was incredibly rude and blunt about everything. The man didn’t have a sympathetic bone in his body despite the fact that the government had been shut down and that meant people’s lives were affected.

And the man had the nerve to say that Pawnee wasn’t special. Pawnee was super special; it hadn’t gotten the title of first in friendship, fourth in obesity for nothing. 

Leslie sulked as she sat at her kitchen table; looking over at all the projects she had planned to start but would never get the chance to now, because of stupid Ben Wyatt.

He kicked her out of City Hall today because she wasn’t essential personnel. What a load of bullcrap, she was so essential; she practically ran that department single-handed.

And Ron was the one who got to go to all the meetings. That was not fair, Ron doesn’t even _care_ about government, but he was allowed to make the choices of what departments get cut or not.

If it were up to him there would be no departments and City Hall would be demolished by the end of the week.

No, she couldn’t be mad at Ron. This wasn’t his fault. At the end of it all he was still director of the department, and had more of a right being at those meetings than she did.

Her thoughts travelled back to Ben. Stupid, jerkface Ben. Stupid, jerkface Ben who wanted to act all tough and brutal because he ran a whole town into the ground when he was eighteen.

In Leslie’s opinion he probably mismanaged the whole thing, she could have totally become Mayor and ran the town well when she was eighteen.

She couldn’t stand him. The way his voice drawled when he told her bad news, that inflection that rose when he told her Pawnee wasn’t special, the stubble around his chiselled jawline, the skinny ties around his neck where his Adam’s apple resided, bobbing up and down whenever he swallowed, his stupid, glossy brown eyes and his wild, unkempt hair that was just begging for someone to run her fingers through…

Leslie’s eyes widened. Crap on a crayfish. No. Nope. This wasn’t happening. She had to think of something else and not Ben Wyatt and his stupid good looks.

She grabbed her phone and called Ann. “Hey, I need a drink…or five.”


	70. 67%

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 70 is up! Only 30 more to go!
> 
> Thank you all for the comments and kudos so far! They mean the world to me!

“Did you know you are 67% pregnant?”

Leslie looked up from her book and over at Ben who was sat at the dining table on his laptop. He had chosen to work from home today, partly to make sure Leslie was getting all the rest she needed, but also because they had a doctors appointment earlier. All was ok, just three beautifully healthy triplets, growing perfectly inside of her.

She couldn’t help but laugh at that statement, imaging a loading bar on her belly.

“How did you figure that out?” She asked, turning slightly on the couch the best she could to face him.

“I got distracted, and I started thinking about the appointment today, so I was toying around with Dr Buttons…I mean my calculator and I put in some numbers and it came up with that” Ben explained as he got up from the table and walked over to her.

“Wow. 67% huh?” Leslie pondered as her hands travelled to her large belly. “We’re getting close.”

“Uh huh. Not to mention the babies won’t even reach full term. They’ll be here before we know it” Ben said, placing his hands on top of Leslie’s.

That was another thing that came out of the appointment today, Dr Saperstein had discussed birthing options with Leslie and at her next appointment in two weeks they would be booking her in for a caesarean. Ben could tell Leslie was nervous, he knew she wanted to do this the regular way and push all three out naturally. But he gave her a pep talk about the risks and how a caesarean would be safer for the babies and Ann had told her that from a nurse’s opinion a caesarean would be best too, and that giving birth naturally wasn’t exactly fun.

She knew Ben might have been trying to take the whole situation off her mind, and she had to admit it was working. Because now she was just thinking of the triplets growing inside of her, and desperately wishing they were out of her now so she could hug and kiss them.

“They’ll probably be born around 90% I reckon” Ben carried on, his thumb stroking her belly.

Leslie rolled her eyes. Her sweet, dorky, numbers robot of a husband was such a nerd to have worked this out, but it was pretty adorable.

“Babies Knope-Wyatt, currently 67% loaded” Leslie joked, and Ben chuckled.

“You look so beautiful when you laugh” Ben told her. “And don’t worry about the c-section, okay? It will go fine and I’ll be there for the whole thing.”

Leslie blinked away tears and nodded. “I know. Thank you” she said as she kissed Ben’s soft lips. “But if you start reeling off percentages at our children’s birth, I will personally cut off your toes with a scalpel.”


	71. Obsession

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the comments and kudos so far!! They mean the world to me!
> 
> There's only 29 chapters left of this so I hope you like this chapter!

She noticed it for the first time during a meeting.

It was way back when they weren’t together, or even liked each other for that matter. But Ben was there, leading a meeting at the Parks Department and Leslie was trying to listen, and not think about how stupid he was for trying to cut their budget and for ruining her plan to trick Chris into restoring their budget by using Ann. 

He was talking about something to do with the upcoming Harvest Festival and how even though they were potentially going to get rid of their department if it wasn’t a success they were still on their side when he dropped his pen. He turned to pick it up and that just so happened to be the right time for Leslie to look up from her notebook.

Her eyes locked onto it, his perfectly flat, toned butt, and she found herself blushing.

Because she had never seen anything so glorious in her entire life, and the gray slacks he was wearing just seemed to accentuate his rump.

He stood back up and put the pen on the table and carried on, causing Leslie to look away, and try to now not think about Ben’s butt.

Their first night together she admitted it.

“I have a nice butt?” Ben repeated, raising an eyebrow.

Leslie couldn’t help but giggle. “You do. I noticed it ages ago. It’s just so flat and smooth and it’s just begging to be pinched.”

To prove her point her hands snaked down to his bare hips and round, pinching the small amount of flesh, causing Ben to yelp and then chuckle.

“Hey!” Ben cried out, taking her hands and pinning them above her hands, and Leslie cackled loudly, leaning up and kissing his lips soundly.

“I’ve waited so long to tell you that,” Leslie admitted, and all Ben could do was smile.

After that night Ben’s butt was a constant subject. She told him what pants made his butt look great and even made a top ten Ben’s butt slideshow; she sent it to Ben, Ann and The Huffington Post. She had no shame in that. She felt that they should see how gloriously wonderful her boyfriend’s butt was.

“I think you are obsessed” Ben said, a couple of nights after they had gotten engaged.

They had moved into their new house the night before, and there were still boxes lying around, and their bed was currently a mattress in the centre of what would be their bedroom, they were still yet to set up their bedframe and they had been so busy with other things like moving their things from Leslie’s old place and rescuing Ben’s belongings from April and Andy’s that they decided setting up the frame could wait, they were perfectly contented sleeping on the floor for the time being.

“Can you blame me?” Leslie asked as she watched Ben strip down to his boxers and undershirt and settle down onto the mattress next to her. “It’s a really nice butt.”

“I know. I think you’ve said that about a million times since we got together” Ben joked. “Maybe I should cut you off cold turkey and wear baggy pants around you so you can’t see it.”

“Don’t even joke about that,” Leslie said sternly. “I can’t get by without seeing your butt at least five times a day.”

She sounded like an addict, and it was true. She was addicted to Ben’s body, and especially his butt. When they had sex her hands found a permanent home attached to his ass cheeks. When he was tired after a long day and flopped onto the couch, she would hurry over and kiss him through his pants lovingly.

Leslie loved his personality and sense of humour and how smart he was. But if she had to be superficial and pick one thing that she loved the most about his looks, it would be his butt. Sure his face and hair came in a very close second, but his butt truly was perfect.

In fact she was sure it was perfect, it would easily make an angel hang itself.


	72. Mischief Managed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 72, a little NSFW! enjoy!

Polly Bainbridge took cautious steps towards the door that had just suddenly appeared in front of her. She toyed her wand in her hands and adjusted her robes neatly.

The room of requirement. Only to appear when a person has need for it. Always equipped for the seeker’s need. And Polly was sure that she needed it today.

Energy still coursed through her veins, it would do after the day she had. She had helped the Gryffindor Quidditch team to victory, being the seeker on the team it was up to her to end the game and gain the most points. She destroyed the Hufflepuff seeker and got there before he even could spot the snitch.

And as she held the snitch up, bathing in the glorious noise of cheers from around the pitch, she saw him. That Ravenclaw boy with the wild brown hair, watching her, and clapping her victory. 

He was easy to spot, even from a high height. And now he was in the room in front of her.

She opened the door, taking a steady breath and saw him standing in the centre of the old room. Roderick Smyth.

“Why hello, Roderick” Polly said as she walked towards him.

“No. Lose the accent, babe.”

Leslie snapped out of her fantasy and frowned. She had spent ages creating her character for tonight’s roleplaying session and Ben had just snapped out of character.

“I was just getting into it” Leslie pouted.

“Okay, sorry, it’s just…you can’t do a British accent. So just stick to your own voice” Ben told her.

She had spent a lot of money on replica wands and sets of Gryffindor and Ravenclaw robes for her and Ben. It might have been a little strange for two thirty-eight year olds to be acting like Hogwarts Students, but they both seemed to enjoy it.

“You were awesome in that quidditch match,” Ben said, going back into his Roderick character.

Polly grinned. “Oh really? You think so.”

“Oh yeah. No one can catch the snitch like you can” Roderick said as he walked forward and grabbed a handful of Polly’s ass. Because that was what Roderick would do, he was a cocky, arrogant Ravenclaw that Polly couldn’t resist, Ben had decided.

“Oh _Roderick_ ” Polly gasped out.

Their robes soon were on the floor, and Roderick pinned Polly to the floor as he suckled on her pink nipples with a growl. Polly pressed into his chest, begging for more.

“Please, Ben.”

“I’m sorry who?”

“Oh crap…I mean Roderick. Please, Roderick, I want more” Polly corrected quickly.

Roderick raised his eyebrows as he sat up, allowing Polly to pull his boxers down. “Oh really? You want my wand, huh?”

“ _Ben!_ ”

“I’m sorry!” Ben chuckled. “I couldn’t resist!”

And right there, on the cold hard floor on the room of requirement, Roderick pushed into Polly. Thrusting into her while Polly gasped and cried out his name.

~~~~

“We should definitely do that again,” Leslie said as she lay on the carpet floor, their Hogwarts robes lying in the corner of the bedroom. 

“Oh yeah? You liked Roderick?” Ben asked, turning to face her.

Leslie though for a moment. “He was okay, I prefer Ben though, maybe next time we should role-play as Leslie and Ben, the two Hogwarts students.”

“Hm, I like that idea” Ben hummed as Leslie crawled onto his chest and pressed her lips to his ear.

“ _Mischief managed_ ” she whispered, and Ben burst out laughing.


	73. I Can't

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 73! I hope you all enjoy!

“I can’t…I can’t do this” Leslie gasped out as another wave of pain took over. Sweat clung to her forehead and everything was blurry.

“Yes you can, you can do this, sweetie” Ben soothed, clinging onto her hand. “You have to, our babies aren’t going to come out any other way.”

Leslie was sure she was meant to go for a caesarean, but now she was lying on a hard metal table, her back sore and her legs in stirrups with Dr Saperstein staring at her between her legs.

“Alright, let’s get these ten babies out” Dr Saperstein said with a smile. 

“What!?” Leslie choked out as she tried to sit up and…good lord, when did her stomach get that big? It had quadrupled in size in the last few seconds.

“But Dr” Ben interrupted. “I thought there were twenty babies in her.”

“Twenty!?” Leslie shrieked out, and now her belly was so big, Dr Saperstein had to peer around it to look at them.

“Ah yes, my mistake, there are twenty babies in there. Wow you two are going to have your hands full” He joked.

Leslie was hyperventilating. Twenty babies? No. This was some sort of prank right? Her body felt heavy and she couldn’t move, she couldn’t run away from this place.

“Ben” she cried, turning to look at him to get some support from her husband, but Ben was now wearing his Batman costume.

“Sorry, Leslie. But Gotham needs me” He replied gruffly, and leapt out of the open window.

“Ben!” Leslie shrieked and then whimpered as another contraction ripped through her giant stomach.

“Don’t worry, Leslie. I have the perfect replacement birthing partner for you” Dr Saperstein said, and just at that moment the door opened, and Leslie almost burst into tears.

“Uh oh, uh oh!” Jean-Ralphio sang as he danced into the room. “Leslie Knope, Leslie Knope, push it real good!”

“No! No, not Jean-Ralphio!” Leslie panted and tried to sit up. And then Ann was there with her hands over her shoulders.

Ann was here, Ann would help her and make sense of all this, right?

Wrong. Ann was glaring at Leslie, and the grip on her shoulders tightened.

“I told you I would strap you down if you tried to move out of this bed” Ann hissed and pushed Leslie back down onto the hard table with a slam.

“Dr, we need to strap her down. That’s the only way we are going to get these babies out” Ann called to Dr Saperstein, and then all three of them were around her, tying her down to the table.

“No! No, Ann you can’t do this!” Leslie screamed. “No, no, no!”

“ _Leslie._ ”

“NO!” Leslie screeched, thrashing around to try and shake them off her.

“ _Leslie! Wake up!_ ”

“NO!”

Her elbow jerked out and hit something, that something grunted loudly in pain, and her eyes snapped open. She breathed a sigh of relief when her eyes adjusted to the light and she realised that she was back in her house, tucked in bed, with a regular, normal sized triplet baby bump.

And Ben was here, rubbing his nose and squinting slightly. “Are you okay? You were having a nightmare, I think. And then you hit me.” Ben grumbled, as Leslie tried to take slow and steady breaths.

“Ben! Oh god it was horrible!” Leslie choked out, trying to wrap her arms around him. “I was giving birth, and I had to have a vaginal delivery, no one would let me have a c-section. And then there were ten babies, then twenty in me! And you turned into Batman and jumped out of the window.”

Ben couldn’t help but smirk as he soothed Leslie by stroking her hair “Gotham probably needed me.”

“Yeah…that’s what you said in the dream” Leslie carried on. “And then Jean-Ralphio was there and Ann turned up and said she was going to tie me to the table because I kept trying to leave and…Oh god, Ben. Please tell me I’m not having twenty babies?”

“Nope” Ben yawned, his hand travelling to her bump where the babies were kicking and probably wondering why their parents were up so late. “Just the three in there.”

“Oh thank god,” Leslie breathed, as she let Ben lay her back down into the soft pillows. “I mean I would have loved them all but…twenty…that’s a lot.”

“It is” Ben chuckled and settled back down next to her. “Are you sure you’re okay? Can you go back to sleep?”

Leslie nodded. Her dreams had been becoming incredibly lucid and visual over the past few weeks, sometimes her dreams were so wonderful she didn’t want to wake up, and other times they were like this. She had read that these crazy dreams it was to do with her pregnancy and her hormones going crazy. 

But Ben was always here to wake her up from the bad ones, and cuddle her until she fell asleep again. He nuzzled into her side, an arm slung protectively over her belly.

“I love you, Ben” Leslie whispered.

“I love you, Leslie,” He mumbled sleepily. “I hope you don’t have any more nightmares.”

But she did. She woke up again two hours later crying into Ben’s arms about how giant vegetables were chasing her.

All he could do was cuddle her and kiss her sweetly and remind her that vegetables couldn’t run.


	74. Are You Challenging Me?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 74! And NSFW! Enjoy!

“So do you want to play?” Ben asked.

Leslie wrinkled up her nose, she had convinced Ben not to throw the elaborate set up of ‘Cones of Dunshire’ in the trash, but she wasn’t too keen on playing it, not after he spent an hour explaining how it was played. She was sure she had forgotten most of the rules already.

“I’m not really sure I’d be any good,” Leslie admitted.

Ben frowned. “I’m sure you’ll be great…how about we make it interesting?”

“How so?”

“Well…” Ben murmured as his hands traced along her hip. “We could play the strip version of it?”

Leslie blinked. “Benjamin Wyatt. Are you challenging me to a game of strip ‘Cones of Dunshire?’”

Ben nodded with that crooked smirk on his face that made Leslie weak at the knees.

“Oh. You’re on.”

~~

“We’ll make it simple” Ben said as he set the game up. “Every time you get a step closer to obtaining a cone, an item of clothing gets removed, strippers choice.” 

Leslie nodded and Ben handed her the multiple dice.

“Ladies first” he winked at her.

Leslie rolled the dice, and Ben coached her through the whole rolling the dice to see how many dice you get to roll scenario. Soon the game was in full swing and Ben was soon celebrating his first victory.

“Alright, Knope. Take something off!” Ben chided and Leslie sighed.

“This is not fair, you are better at this game than me” Leslie groaned as she parted with her socks. She thought she better start off small.

“It’s strategy, babydoll” Ben smirked. “When you play the Cones of Dunshire, you win or you strip.”

Leslie rolled her eyes. “Was that based off a Game of Thrones quote?”

Ben just grinned.

~~

About two hours later Leslie was now in a blouse and her underwear, while Ben was currently shirtless. His shirt being the only item of clothing that he had taken off. Needless to say, Leslie was losing.

“Oh well would you look at that?” Ben cheered, “I’ve just claimed my first cone! That means another item of clothing off!”

Leslie thought for a moment, she could easily take off her blouse and sit here in her bra and panties…or she could play dirty.

“Alright” she shrugged, and stood up. Making sure to grab Ben’s attention, she eased her panties down her thighs slowly. She watched as Ben’s eyes nearly bulged out of his head, and he smirked again, as she tugged off her panties and threw them over her shoulder.

“As requested” Leslie purred, unable to hide her own smirk.

Ben leaned on the table, trying to get a better view. “Are you playing dirty because you’re losing?”

“Maybe. Is it working?”

“Hell yeah” Ben growled, standing up from his seat abruptly and striding towards her, a hand knotted in her hair, pushing her into his lips as he devoured her.

“If I didn’t just spend two weeks on this game I would totally fuck you right here on this table” Ben moaned into her mouth.

Leslie frowned. “That’s not really sexy, babe.”

“No. Sorry. Forget I said that” Ben quickly said as he scooped her into his arms and took her upstairs, still wearing the Ledgerman’s cap.


	75. Mirror

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am three quarters of the way through now!! I'm so happy with how far I've come, and I hope you all enjoy chapter 75!
> 
> Comment and kudos are appreciated!

Leslie took a deep breath as she stared back at her reflection. She had made a point of not looking at her body in the mirror after having the triplets. Her body would not be how she remembered it before she got pregnant.

She was fine looking at her body when she was pregnant; her bulging belly was almost like a badge of honour, reminding that their triplets were growing healthy and strong. She didn’t care how she couldn’t see her toes anymore because her belly got in the way or how the majority of her old clothes didn’t fit anymore, all that mattered was that the babies were healthy.

But now, the triplets were born and currently five and a half weeks old. Her scar from her caesarean had healed significantly, but it was still there, red and ugly on her lower stomach.

Not to mention her stomach and breasts. Ben loved her full breasts to pieces, and when the triplets weren’t feeding he’d taken to accidentally falling asleep against them, claiming they were a great pillow. But they were sore, and nursing bras were horrible to wear. She knew her stomach wouldn’t be too pretty after growing triplets for almost eight months, but she never expected this, there were stretchmarks covering it and the poor skin had been stretched to capacity that it wrinkled slightly.

Ann, her mom, they both told her the same thing. ‘You just had triplets, your body is still recovering, you’ll be back to your old self in a few months time.’ But Leslie didn’t feel attractive, and she took to wearing baggy pyjamas to bed to avoid any attention from Ben.

There was a soft rap on the door, shaking Leslie from her thoughts.

“Yeah?”

“It’s me” she heard Ben’s voice reply. “Are you ok in there?”

“I’m fine…I’ll be out in a minute” Leslie called back, turning back to the mirror.

“…Can I come in?”

“I’m not decent” Leslie mumbled.

“Les…please can I come in?”

Leslie sighed and walked over to the door, unlocking it and opening it for Ben. She watched as his eyes searched all over her body, and then travelled back to her eyes.

“Are you looking at yourself in the mirror again?” He asked.

Leslie frowned. “I don’t do it that often.”

“You do it plenty enough” Ben said, wrapping his arms around her body and turning her to the mirror. 

“Ben, I don’t really feel comfortable with-.”

“No, please, listen to me” Ben cut in “I want to make you feel better.”

He kissed her neck, and his hands wandered across her body, touching her all over, his hands ignited her skin and caused a prickling heat to erupt over her body. 

“I know you don’t think you look attractive right now, but can I just say that I’ve never been more attracted to you” Ben said, as he hands ghosted along her hips. “You’re body has been through so much, and all these marks and scars…they’re here to remind us that you’ve worked so hard to bring our three children into this world.”

His hands wandered lower, carefully tracing the scar. “You are so beautiful, Leslie. Never forget that. No scar or stretchmark could ever change my opinion.” 

Leslie looked back at her reflection, this time she watched Ben’s hands travel over her body, and a soft moan escaped her lips. When she was along, she’d have those demons creep up behind her, all of them looked like Kim Terlando, telling her that she was ugly, and fat and she should have lost all her post baby weight by now. But with Ben currently wrapped around her, touching her, making her feel alive and loved, she had never felt sexier.

Because he was right. She worked damn hard to give birth to three healthy babies, and her new body was her new badge of honour. And she’d like to challenge anyone who said otherwise to carry triplets for seven and a half months and see how they fared.

“I love you” Leslie whispered as she nuzzled into Ben. He hadn’t shaved in a while, and his beard was full and tickled her cheek. “I really needed that today.”

“I know you did” Ben replied, kissing her cheek. “Now get back into bed. You’ve still got at least a week left of rest, and I need to use the bathroom.”

Leslie cackled and Ben released her, she reached up and kissed him soundly before walking out of their bathroom and climbed back into bed. 

She had three beautiful babies and a husband who would say and do anything for her, and she wouldn’t trade either of those for the world’s perfect body.


	76. Broken Pieces

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just under a quarter of the way to go now! I hope you all enjoy this chapter!
> 
> Comments and kudos make my day!

Leslie sat in silence, watching as Ben sat opposite her, burying his head in his hands and groaning.

“Well…for what it’s worth I didn’t think it was that bad” Leslie said after what felt like an eternity of sitting in silence.

“You don’t have to be nice to me, I sounded like an idiot. Heck I was an idiot” Ben grumbled, his head still in his hands.

Leslie tried to counter his statement, but ok it was true. The poor guy just wasn’t good in front of the camera and somehow had managed to do a radio interview and a talk show, both tanking them and freaking out.

The icing on top of the cake was Perd’s show. He snapped about how he had gay thoughts in the past, Ice Town cropped up again and he talked about feeling up his high school crush for the first time (which made Leslie a little jealous.) He couldn’t catch a break, and now Ben was sat in front of her, breaking apart.

A few weeks ago she would have walked away and left him to wallow in self-pity. But Ben had grown on her, like crab cakes. The first time she had crab cakes she hated them, and now she loved them.

Whoa…ok she didn’t love Ben, but she thought he was an ok person. He was helping her with the Harvest Festival, anyone who helped with that was good in her books.

And she could tell he was distraught by everything that had happened today. He didn’t need to be reminded of any of it, he just needed a friend.

Cautiously, she reached out and placed a hand on his thigh, giving it a gentle squeeze and making him look up at her.

“Hey. It’s okay. It’s going to be okay,” Leslie told him, sending a warm, comforting smile his way.

Ben sighed. “I fucked up, big time. How can you be okay with this? This is your project, and I’ve ruined it. I heard you tell Tom that people are threatening to pull sponsorships.”

“Don’t worry about any of that. People get nervous in front of the camera, it’s natural” Leslie said, her voice calming and soothing. “Just…pull it together, okay? Because we need you, Ben. We’re a team, got that?”

Ben managed a shaky smile and nodded. “Got it.”

“Good. Don’t worry about Joan’s show, I’ll try and keep them from bringing you on, but if they do I have your back” Leslie said, with another squeeze to his thigh.

“If they do?” Ben repeated, his breath shallow and his eyes wide.

“No. No they won’t, okay? I’ll try so hard, just hide in the shadows or something?” Leslie suggested.

She glanced at her watch. “It’s time to go, are you going to come with me?”

Ben swallowed and took a deep breath in, running his hands over his knees a few times before standing up. “Yeah. I’m coming.”

Leslie didn’t have a chance to respond before Ben was pulling her into a hug, burying his head in the crook of her neck, and whispering thank you to her over and over.

Leslie smiled sadly and rubbed the back of his head. “It’s okay, we’ve all done stupid shit.”

And there she could feel Ben managing to fix the broken pieces and band himself together again.


	77. Test

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all for the comments and kudos so far! They really do make my day! I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

“You know what would be fun?” Leslie asked, sitting up and leaning on her pillow.

“What?” Ben replied, looking up from his novel.

“If we did that parental compatibility test thing that Ann and Chris did,” Leslie said as she leaned into Ben’s chest. “It’ll be fun to see how compatible we are, I mean, we’re already married so it’s not like it’s going to affect anything, right?”

A few days ago, Leslie had presented Ben with an empty family album that she made herself, ready to be filled with photos of their family. That night they talk briefly about Leslie coming off the pill to jumpstart their chances at getting pregnant and Leslie created a schedule that listed out all the potential evenings and mornings where they could have sex to try and conceive.

Then work distracted them, so all talks of having a baby were postponed for the time being, until tonight.

“Come on, let’s do it. It’s not that late, and it’ll be fun” Leslie bubbled happily.

Ben grinned at his wife. “Alright, go get my laptop and we’ll do it.”

Leslie was out of the door before Ben could finish his sentence.

~~

“Okay, I’m all finished” Ben said as he selected the answer to the final question.

“Me too” Leslie replied, excitedly chewing at her top lip.

“On the count of three we press enter, okay?” Ben said, and Leslie nodded.

“One.”

“Two.”

“Three.”

They both clicked enter, and the results popped up.

“Oh…62%”

“62…”

Leslie frowned. “That can’t be right. We are super compatible, this test is garbage! I mean we probably answered all the questions the same, what did you put for number 9?”

“The one about telling your children about mythical and magical things? I answered yes.”

Leslie nodded frantically. “Yes. Good. I put yes too. What about number 15?”

Ben thought hard, trying to remember the questions. “Was that the one about reporting them to the police if they did something bad?”

“Yeah.”

“I answered no.”

Leslie gawped.

“I answered yes…why would you not want to report our child for the defacement of the Lil Sebastian Memorial?” Leslie snapped.

“Because I’m afraid of cops and anything our child does we can discipline ourselves…wait, did you just make up a hypothetical situation for arresting our future child?” Ben asked with frown.

“Yeah, well that’s the only thing I could think of that would be bad enough to call the cops on my own child” Leslie explained.

She bolted out of bed, knocking her laptop over and started pacing the bedroom. “This is a disaster, Ben. We’re only 62% compatible. People like us should be getting 100%, this is not okay! How can we raise a child like this?”

Ben sighed, shifting his laptop to the side and reaching out for Leslie’s hand. “Hey, come here” He said kindly, taking her hand and managing to tug her back under the covers.

“Let’s not pay attention to some stupid online quiz,” Ben said, kissing the top of her head as he pulled her into his chest. “We could have scored 92% or 2%, it doesn’t matter. When we have a child it will be the most loved child in the entire world, no quiz can change my mind about that.”

Leslie nuzzled into his chest. “You’re right. I should have really stopped taking online tests after I got set up with Tom with online dating.”

Ben smirked, “You’ve taken loads of online tests then?”

“Oh yes. Apparently my celebrity husband is John Stamos.”


	78. Drink

Leslie walked into Chris’s office, expecting him to be there so she could drop of some receipt to be claimed back on expenses. It had been a long day of work and for once she couldn’t want to get home and maybe have a drink.

Only Chris wasn’t there, instead it was just Ben. 

They had developed a strong friendship after the Harvest Festival and April and Andy’s wedding where she told him to stay, and he was settling into the role of Assistant City Manager nicely.

“Hey” He greeted when he saw her walk in.

“Hi, is Chris still around? I have these receipts,” Leslie asked.

“Oh, he’s gone for the day, but I can take them?” Ben suggested, and Leslie willingly handed them over. She watched as Ben took them back to his desk and begun typing out the numbers.

“Wait…you aren’t doing them now are you?” Leslie asked, raising an eyebrow.

Ben frowned. “Why not? I’m here, I might as well.”

Leslie rolled her eyes slightly. “You need to take a break, and that’s me talking” she giggled as she closed the lid to his laptop.

“How about we go for a drink? It’s been a long day, I could blow off some steam and wouldn’t mind the company, I’ll get the first round?” She said, smiling at Ben.

Ben thought about it, it was true that he had no plans. He’d probably go back to his motel and work on that new Star Trek Fanfiction he had started writing. Maybe a beer could be fun after all.

“Alright you twisted my arm” Ben grinned, grabbing his coat. “These can wait until tomorrow.”

Leslie cheered happily as they both walked out of Ben’s office. “I never thought I’d say this, but I am so glad today is over with, it’s been a hellish day.”

And it had been. She had spent the day in a five hourly long meeting with other department heads, Joe from sewage included, and he kept making crude statements across the table at all the women, including Leslie. Chris had to keep stopping the meeting and asking Joe to stop.

“I’m surprised he didn’t kick Joe out,” Ben recalled as he remembered Chris turning a weird shade of purple after telling Joe off for the eighteenth time.

“So am I” Leslie agreed. “God I could really do with a beer. Shall we leave our cars here? I probably won’t be good to drive after this?”

“Sounds good” Ben nodded. “We can get a cab there and back.”

“Great! And you can stay at mine if you want?”

Ben blinked.

“Oh! I mean…um…I meant if you want to, you can stay on my couch, rather than going backwards and forwards and…we can get a cab into work tomorrow too” Leslie stammered, trying to dig her way out of the hole.

“It’s a comfy couch” she insisted, and the frowned. Why the hell did she say that?

Ben just grinned and held the door open for her, leading out to the dark street. “I’ll think about it, but it sounds like a good offer” he chuckled as the pair walked down towards the road to find a cab.


	79. Starvation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe I have 20 chapters left! This has gone so quickly!
> 
> Thanks for all the comments and kudos so far!! This chapter is a little NSFW.

Leslie had just closed the door to Donna, who had dropped off some documents to the motel room, and turned back to Ben.

“I don’t know about you, but I’m starving!” Leslie announced, placing her hands on her hips.

“Me too” Ben agreed, getting up from his makeshift office at the old table in the middle of the motel room. City Hall was being fumigated, and they needed to get these federal grant proposals done, which led them to getting a room at The Pawnee Super Suites Motel rooms.

It wasn’t exactly the super sexy getaway that Ben had hoped, but at least he got to spend the time with Leslie.

He watched as she reeled off a pizza number from her phone, ordering a pepperoni for herself and a calzone for Ben, and he couldn’t help but feel want for her.

He was starving, but a different kind of starving.

If there wasn’t so much work to get done tonight, he’d happily throw all the documents on the floor, lay her down on the table and pull down her khakis, revealing herself to him and eat her out until his starvation was cured.

Right now, she couldn’t look more attractive to him. No make up on, her hair tied back in a messy bun, and a white blouse with the sleeves rolled back. This was the Leslie Knope he liked to see, one who looked beautiful in the simplest of clothes, radiating in the glow of the moonlight through the cheap curtains in the motel room. 

And if he didn’t get his mouth on her soon he might die.

He got up just as Leslie hung up the phone. “Okay, pizza will be here in 45 minutes,” she told him, and grinned as Ben wrapped his arms around her.

“Hi.”

“Hey there.”

She leaned into his chest. They had been working so hard they hadn’t cuddled much tonight. Which was good, she would be claiming the price of the motel room back for reimbursement, and should someone find out about them she needed to prove that nothing sexual happen in this room.

But cuddling was allowed, friends and colleagues could cuddle, that’s totally fine.

But the way Ben was looking at her she could tell he wanted something else. His usually warm brownie coloured eyes were darkening, something she usually saw right before he pinned her down on the bed, teeth scraping at her neck and hands grabbing at her chest.

“Are you okay?” She asked him, and Ben pressed his lips to her neck, sucking at a spot that made her moan.

“I’m great,” he whispered, hands roaming up to her blouse, tugging at the buttons.

Leslie tried to shake him off, as much as she wanted it, they couldn’t. Not tonight. If he held on until tomorrow when they’d leave the motel room and got back to hers, he could have her as much as he wanted.

“Ben” Leslie whimpered, gently pushing him off. “No, babe. I’m sorry, not here. I don’t want to get in trouble. I’m submitting the receipt for this room for reimbursement and if Chris ever finds out we’re together I bet you he’d assume something happened in here.”

Ben couldn’t help but grin. “Already thought of that.”

And with a wink, he whipped out a new card key from his pocket and handed it over to her.

“That’s the key to room 203. Just down the hall. This room is paid for out of my own pocket and won’t be claimed back. This can be our little secret room for tonight,” he slowly leaned in, his lips brushing the tip of Leslie’s ear, making her shudder.

“You in?”

Leslie let out a soft moan. “I’m in. But we’ve got to be quick, pizza will be here soon.”

Ben grinned as he took her by the hand, leading her out of the room. “I’m not rushing. No calzone in the world could be as good as what I’m about to eat.”

Leslie cackled loudly as the door to their work motel room closed, and they fled down the hall to their super sexy secret room.


	80. Words

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 80 is up!! 20 more to go!

Leslie woke up at about 4am after the morning she got engaged to Ben with her brain overflowing with ideas. She had more or less written her entire vows in her head and needed to type them out immediately before she forgot them.

She carefully slipped out of Ben’s grasp, which only earned a few sleepy grunts from her fiancé and pulled on his white button up before quietly creeping down stairs to fetch her laptop.

She poured herself a cup of strong coffee and powered up her laptop. She knew that Ben would wake up soon realising that Leslie wasn’t next to him anymore and go looking for her, but right now, she just wanted to try and get as much of her vows out and written.

This would be the first draft, and she had planned to get at least ten drafts written before they would be perfect.

Leslie put in her headphones and put on her ‘I love Ben’ playlist, which was mainly Sarah McLachlan songs, but would still give her everything that she needed to help transfer the words of love and affection from her mind to her computer.

The engagement had been everything she had ever wanted. Ben surprising her, the ring was beautiful, and they to their realtor that they would be taking the house, just minutes after Leslie thought that her dream house would be taken away from her.

Well… her dream house was The White House. But their new place would be a close second. And it was theirs. After a 3 minute make out session, they signed the papers which confirmed that they would be moving in, which was then follower by another 7 minute make out session, in which Martha announced awkwardly that she was going to leave to give them some privacy.

They had just about made it back to Leslie’s with all their clothes in tact. Things were getting too heated at the new place that they almost started tearing off each other’s clothes there are then, but they had to remember this wasn’t their house yet. The post engagement sex was perfect, and Leslie never felt happier.

There were a brief few minutes where Leslie felt like her heart had been ripped from her chest when Ben left to pick her up some waffles from JJ’s. Being alone from him was unbelievably unbearable. But he soon came back, with waffles and a container of whipped cream in tow, and Leslie pounced on him once again, feeling her heart returning to her.

Leslie paused and stared at the document. That was good. Ben was her heart, she should write that down.

She scanned the document, it was already 70 pages, she had managed to write that in the space of about half an hour. By this rate she’d have her vows perfected and ready before they even decided on a date.

Leslie jumped as she felt two arms snake around her waist. She pulled out her headphones and turned to see a sleepy Ben cuddling up against her.

“What are you doing?” He asked, his voice groggy.

“I thought of some really great ideas for my vows, and I wanted to write them down before I forgot” Leslie replied sheepishly.

Ben couldn’t help but grin and kiss Leslie on the nose. “Come back to bed, it’s still early, and I want to cuddle with my fiancé.”

Fiancé…hearing that word come from Ben’s mouth made Leslie shiver, and she couldn’t say no to that.

“Alright, you wore me down” Leslie said, taking his hand and leading Ben back up to bed.

Maybe she could sneak a notepad into bed and make notes once Ben was fast asleep.


	81. Pen and Paper

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 19 chapters left!! I hope you like this one!

“Alright, mister. We are on vocal lockdown,” Leslie announced as she walked into their lounge with a pad of paper and a pen, handing them both to Ben who was bundled up in several blankets on their couch.

“I don’t want to hear your voice for at least a week, is that clear?” she asked, and Ben scowled at her, but managed a nod.

Ben had woken up with a strange cough a few days ago, which soon turned into a scratchy an irritable sore throat. Leslie had finally dragged him to the doctors four days in when Ben’s voice finally gave up on him, and a fever broke out. The doctor diagnosed him with a severe case of laryngitis and gave him plenty of antibiotics to take, and also ordered Ben to try and not speak for at least a week to let his voice heal.

Of course Leslie took this to the extreme and had dug out a pad of paper for Ben to write everything down on for a week. He had been written off from work at the Sweetums foundation and there really would be no need for him to talk. Leslie was perfectly content with his handwritten notes if that meant him getting better.

She watched as Ben scribbled down on the pad and turned it around for her to see.

_‘The doctor said it would be ok for me to talk a little bit.’_

“No chance, Wyatt. You could damage your voice even more so. No, I’m not taking that chance, you can write everything down and I’ll interpret for you” Leslie insisted, clasping his left hand.

 _‘This is going to be a huge pain in the ass’_ Ben wrote back.

“I know. But if it means you getting better then we can cope” Leslie replied.

Ben gave her a sad smile and went back to the pad. _‘Thank you for taking care of me. I don’t know what I would do without you.’_

Leslie grinned at Ben, and kissed his overly warm cheek. “It’s okay. How about I fix you some lunch. Some soup would help soothe your throat?”

_‘That sounds good. But can you add some of that fresh parsley we got?’_

Leslie had already left to go into the kitchen, not seeing Ben’s recent note. He growled silently to himself and un-tucked himself from the blankets and hurried after her into the kitchen. 

She was already chopping up an onion when Ben walked in and tapped her on the shoulder. She spun around and Ben held up the paper for her to read.

She smiled sadly. “Sorry, babe. I didn’t see that part. Of course I will.”

Ben’s hand moved down and rubbed her hip lovingly. There was no need for words at this point. He knew that Leslie was going to miss hearing his voice for a week, and she just needed some comfort of her own. All he could offer was platonic touches and cuddles, and hopes that she wouldn’t catch this horrible sickness from him.

He pulled Leslie away from the chopping board and into his arms, running his hands through her golden locks and kissing her forehead sweetly.

It was going to be a hard week, but they would manage. They always did.

They both pulled away and Ben scribbled another note down and held it up.

_‘I love you.'_

Leslie read it through twice, and then noticed the tiny heart next to it. Her own heart almost burst with love and she could feel tears brimming in her eyes.

“I love you too, Ben” she choked out, wiping her eyes. “Stupid onions.”

Ben’s hand was back on her shoulder. “Are you okay, honey?” he asked, his voice hoarse and croaky.

Leslie’s head snapped up and she glared at him. “What the hell did I say about not talking, Wyatt? Get out of here now and back under those blankets!”

Ben jumped backwards and quickly scurried out of the kitchen before Leslie could say anything else.


	82. Can you hear me?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here's chapter 82! Thanks for all the comments and kudos!

Leslie drummed her fingers impatiently on her desk in her City Council office as she stared at her computer screen. It was 6 o’clock and Ben was meant to join her for a Skype date while he was still in D.C.

Only he was late.

This was the third time she had tried to call him and each time she had been disconnected for some unknown reason.

There was only on explanation for this. He had been taken and this was a Liam Neeson scenario.

Finally, the screen popped up, but to Leslie’s dismay it was blank.

“Ben?” She called out. “Can you hear me?”

“Hey, honey!” Ben’s voice replied. “Yeah I can hear you loud and clear.”

She frowned. “I can’t see you, it must be a bad connection.”

“Oh…really? That’s weird. I can see you.”

Leslie pursed her lips. Usually her computer connection was pretty good and never seemed to fail her, especially when it came to talking to Ben online.

“This sucks. What’s going on? We’ve never had problems. I just want to see your face,” Leslie whined, slouching back on her chair.

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Ben’s voice came out again. “It’s working fine for me.”

Leslie started toying with the cables in the back of her computer. “Do you think it’s my computer?”

“Oh! Wait. I think I found the problem.”

“Yeah?” Leslie answered quickly, hurrying back round to the screen where Ben could supposedly see her. “What is it?”

“It’s because I’m not at my computer.”

Leslie paused. “You’re not? Where are you?” She asked, confused.

“I’m right here.”

The door to her office opened with a clunk, and to Leslie’s surprise, Ben was standing in her doorway, his phone held up to his ear with a grin on his face.

Oh.

So _that’s_ why she couldn’t see him.

Because her adorably, sexy, wonderful boyfriend had planned a surprise visit.

Leslie squealed in delight and jumped out of her chair, practically clambering over her desk to get to him faster. She leapt into his arms and he caught her with an ‘oof.’

“You’re here! What are you doing here?” Leslie cried out excitedly, pressing kisses all over his face.

“I thought I’d come back and surprise you” Ben answered in between kisses. “So I flew back for the weekend with April. Oh yeah, I wouldn’t go into the Parks Department if I were you. I left April there on my way to see you and her and Andy were dry humping on the conference table.”

“I’m not going near there, because you’re here. You’re here!” She repeated excitedly, placing her hands on either side of his face and kissing his lips with as much love as she could muster.

She pulled away with tears in her eyes. “I missed you so much.”

Ben smiled at her and rubbed the tears away. “I missed you too. But you have me for the whole weekend and we can do whatever you want.”

Leslie tugged at the lapel of his jacket, pulling him closer and back into her lips. Ben’s tongue grazed her bottom lip and she let out a soft moan into his mouth.

“I want to go back to mine,” Leslie whispered, her eyes darkened.

Ben smirked; it was that sexy, arrogant smirk that she just loved so much. “You got it, babydoll.”


	83. Heal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for reading! I hope you enjoy this chapter!

He felt like he had been put together again the night they got back together.

It was 2 in the morning, and Leslie and Ben still refused to go to sleep, as if they were scared of closing their eyes in case the other would disappear and this would be a dream.

As the night turned into day, Ben soon realised that this wasn’t a dream. Leslie was here, and they were at her place, cuddled up in her bed after hours of amazing make up sex.

And it truly was amazing. Since their break up, Ben had forgotten how soft Leslie’s skin was, how she had these adorable freckles just under he eyes if you looked really closely, and that she was ticklish on her stomach, and the slightest touch would set her off in a fit of giggles.

He missed her so much. He was a broken man before he met her, cold and callous. Then she reminded him how to love, how to smile every morning when he woke up, and he adored her for it.

When they broke up for the sake of her City Council campaign, all those negative emotions came back, and Ben found himself unable to concentrate on anything but how much he missed her. He would be distracted during work, while watching football on TV, nothing felt right without her.

But she was here, curled up against his chest and drawings nonsensical patterns on his chest. Every now and then she would look up at him and smile. Her eyes still slightly red from the amount of crying she had done. He had joined her in that too, he couldn’t help it; it was an emotional time for the both of them.

He leaned down, kissing her forehead and trailing down her nose until he reached her lips. She smiled against him, and for the first time in months. Ben managed to smile too.

She had healed him. And he would be forever grateful for that. Leslie Knope was that tiny ball of sunshine that made his dark days bright, and filled his life with nothing but pure happiness.

“Penny for your thoughts?” Leslie asked, poking him in the chest.

Ben reached over and moved a curl out of her face. “I’m just thinking about how lucky I am to finally have you back.”

Leslie’s eyes clouded over again with tears. “Don’t. I only just stopped crying.”

Ben chuckled and wrapped his arms tightly around her. “I’m sorry, but it’s true.” And he held her, rocking her gently as she sniffled against his chest.

He had no idea where they were going to end up after this, whether he’d get fired or she would. But he did know that they were going to be just fine. His little ball of sunshine would never burn out, and she’d make sure that Ben wouldn’t either.


	84. Out Cold

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is chapter 84!! I hope you all enjoy!

“I’m really worried, Ann” Leslie said anxiously down the phone. “He’s really pale, I’m pretty sure he’s out cold. Should I take him to the hospital?”

“They won’t be able to do anything” Ann’s melodic voice replied, trying to soothe Leslie. “It’s food poisoning. He’ll feel better once he gets everything out of his system, it’s probably a good thing he’s asleep.”

“He doesn’t look asleep, he looks like he’s passed out” Leslie said, peering from behind the door at her fiancé who was in the middle of the bed, hugging his knees to his chest.

“He’s probably exhausted,” Ann said. “I had to tend to Chris and Ron earlier and they looked the same. Just let him sleep, and make sure he drinks plenty of water, even if he’s not in the mood to have anything, just make sure he drinks something so he doesn’t get dehydrated.”

“Alright” Leslie sighed. She said goodbye to Ann and walked back into the bedroom where Ben lay. Very carefully she brushed some of the sweaty hair from his forehead and listened to his breathing. It was thick and heavy; Leslie had to remind herself that it was good that he was breathing.

She just about managed to drag Ben from the bathroom floor after his vomiting subsided for a brief few minutes and into the bed. A bucket was by the edge of the bed just in case, but thankfully Ben hadn’t needed to use it. 

All she could do now was watch Ben, and hope that he woke up soon so he could tell her how he was feeling. 

Why did he think calzones would be a good appetiser for their wedding meal? This really was all his fault; he knew where she stood with calzones. But he still insisted on eating them, resulting in a wicked bout of food poisoning.

She stroked the top of his wild hair, and Ben slowly opened his eyes for the first time in about forty minutes.

“L’slie?” he croaked, his voice hoarse.

“Hey, honey” Leslie soothed, reaching for a glass of water on the side and offering it to him. “You should drink this, Ann said it would help.”

Ben took the glass and took slow sips, and Leslie helped him against the pillows. Ben whimpered at the slight movement and his eyelids fluttered.

“Sorry, baby. Did I wake you?” Leslie asked.

“A little” Ben replied, nuzzling into her side. Her poor boyfriend was sweaty and miserable and just needed some comforting. She could do that for him easily.

“Go back to sleep” Leslie whispered to him, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Will you stay with me?” Ben asked sleepily.

Leslie smiled. She would have kissed him but she wasn’t going near that mouth for a good 24 hours. 

Or at least until he brushed his teeth.

“Of course” Leslie said, and soon enough, sleep had knocked Ben out once again.


	85. Spiral

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben makes Leslie chicken soup.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm officially three quarters of the way there!! I hope you all enjoy this chapter!

“Why have you suddenly taken an interest in Grandma Eliza’s chicken soup recipe?” Julia Wyatt’s voice came from the receiver. “I remember trying to teach you, Henry and Stephanie how to make it and you weren’t interested at all.”

Ben sighed into the phone and rolled his eyes. “I told you. There’s a crazy flu around Pawnee and this soup seems to combat any illness. Plus I’m older, I like to cook, and I want to learn how to make it.”

It had been a weird day. From having to drag Leslie to the hospital when she had finally succumbed to the flu, to watching her walk down the corridor like she was drunk, trying to navigate her way, to being in pure awe of her as she delivered her speech clearly and confidently, and with no hint of the flu whatsoever.

Ben was in a daze after he had finished up all the questions at the Chamber of Commerce. He drove back to Chris’ condo in Indianapolis to look after it while Chris was also battling the flu. He stood in the kitchen for a few moments, trying to gather his thoughts together, but it was no use.

His brain was going crazy, flowing into a warped spiral where he could only think about Leslie, her speech, and her sunny blonde hair. His heart pounded hard in his chest, and seemed to beat out her name.

He tried to hell himself that this wasn’t possible, that he couldn’t be falling for Leslie. Not a few months ago was she calling him a jerk and glaring at him whenever he entered the room. And he didn’t think much of her either and her aggressively fierce passion for her job. 

But right now, trying to take deep breaths and compose himself, he could only think of one thing.

How she was in the hospital, alone and miserable and sick, and he wanted to help her get better.

That led to calling his mother up in Minnesota. Telling her that he really needed the recipe to his great, great grandmother’s chicken soup that had been passed down in their family for generations.

“Have you chopped the vegetables?”

“Yeah” Ben replied to his mother. “Carrots, celery, an onion. Is that everything?”

“That’s it. Now you’re going to want to put the chicken in whole in a pot of cold water and wait for it to boil. Then leave the chicken for about two hours in the water to cook. That should give it plenty of time to season the soup. If you have any parsley too that will go nicely in it” Julia explained.

“I have dried parsley?” Ben asked, holding up a jar of herbs from Chris’ pantry.

“That will work” Julia said. “Just make sure you keep an eye on it and make sure to skim the froth off every ten minutes or so.”

“Alright. Thanks, Mom” Ben said, smiling softly as he pressed the phone closer to his eyes.

“No worries. And I hope your lady friend likes the soup.”

Ben blushed. “Oh. There’s no…this isn’t-”

“Benjamin. I’m your mother. I know very well when you are trying to impress a girl. I mean remember everything that happened when you fell for Cindy Eckert.” Julia said with a soft laugh.

“I know,” Ben sighed. “But this is different…she’s…I just wanted to make her something so that she’d feel better.”

“I understand. I’m sure she’ll love it. I have to go but if you run into any trouble just call me again, you know I love to hear from you.”

“I know, Mom. I love you.” Ben said.

“I love you too, Benny.”

Ben set his phone back on the table and watched as the soup bubbled away nicely. He then looked over at the chopping board covered with vegetables, waiting to be added to the soup.

He frowned. Maybe he’d have to get some waffles from JJ’s to try and ease the pain of all the vegetables. He knew that Leslie would not be happy with that.


	86. Seeing Red

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben helps Leslie relax after a bad day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the comments and kudos so far! I've nearly hit 100 kudos on this story so that's really exciting!
> 
> I hope you enjoy this chapter!

Leslie was never the type of person to get really angry.

Sure she had her days where she’d be frustrated or annoyed. But she rarely got to the point where she was seething.

Thankfully, Ben had a full proof plan to calm her down when she got angry that usually consisted of waffles, back rubs and bubble baths.

When he heard the front door slam shut at 6:30 on a Thursday evening, he knew it was going to be one of those nights.

“Jamm can go eat a dick,” Leslie snapped, storming into the lounge, kicking off her shoes into the corner and clenching her fists. “I hate him, I hate him.”

Ben followed her into the lounge cautiously, knowing that she was a tiny ball of rage and about to explode at any given moment.

“How dare he? How could anyone turn down a bill for helping children stay active? My ‘How High Can you Jump’ bill was perfect. And he flat out refused, he didn’t even consider it. All because getting kids outside and not staying inside eating sugar all the time would affect his stupid dental practice. It’s bullshit. I’m sure sugar is great but Jamm is terrible and he sucks and I hate him,” Leslie vented in one breath.

Ben stayed silent and reached over, taking her hand in his and giving it a gentle pat. That wasn’t enough to calm her down, however, and she carried on ranting about how Dexhart also said some very inappropriate things today.

That gave Ben enough time to pull Leslie up from the couch, she frowned as he took her hand again and led her upstairs.

“Where are we going?”

“You need a bath.”

Leslie scoffed loudly. “I do not need a bath, sir. I do not smell!”

Ben chuckled softly. “No, you need a bubble bath, you need to relax.”

He stopped her outside of the bathroom and walked in, turning the faucet twice so that steaming hot water poured out. He then grabbed the bottle of lavender scented bubble bath and poured it into the water, watching as the bubbles frothed up almost instantly.

Leslie was still grumbling outside of the bathroom. “And he said that it looked like my boobs had gotten smaller. Like, I think I know when my boobs have gotten smaller, thank you very much.”

“Leslie” Ben said, his tone turning sharp. “Clothes off. Get in the bath.”

“ _You_ get in the bath!”

Ben raised an eyebrow and Leslie sighed. “Fine. It does look pretty good in there.”

“Yep. And it’s all for you” Ben said as he steered her into the bathroom and helped unbutton her shirt. She shrugged out of it and unzipped her pants.

Soon she was immersed in the sweet smelling water, a look of content on her face. Ben just smiled and sat on the edge of the tub as she smiled dreamily.

“Ok, I needed this” she admitted. “Thank you.”

“I know you did” Ben smiled at her, drawing circles in the water with the tip of his finger.

“You know what would make this even better?” Leslie asked, opening one eye to look at him.

“What?”

“If you were in here with me,” Leslie said, grinning at him.

Ben couldn’t help but smile back at her. “All right, if you insist” he replied as he started to unbutton his shirt.


	87. Food

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben cooks Leslie vegetables.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only 13 more chapters to go! I hope you enjoy this one! 
> 
> Comments and kudos are much appreciated!

“Alright, you can do this. You can totally do this. It’s no big deal, it’s just…not a big deal.”

“Leslie, are you really giving yourself a pep talk before eating vegetables?”

Leslie looked up from her plate and blushed. “I’m not used to them, ok? I usually avoid vegetables like the plague but…”

She trailed off. Ben had come over and surprised her with offering to cook dinner. Ben was a great cook, Leslie had no doubts. She had tasted some of his cooking before, but this, this was a challenge.

There was a chicken breast on her plate, with a wonderfully smelling creamy sauce over it, but next to it…next to it was a pile of broccoli, green beans, spinach, and it completely ruined the meal.

But she had to eat it. She and Ben were still in the beginning of their relationship and she couldn’t be rude and turn her nose up at the food he had just spent an hour preparing for her. No matter how terrible vegetables were.

And really, they were terrible.

Leslie picked up her fork and prodded a broccoli stalk cautiously, and Ben smirked.

“It’s not going to bite you” Ben said to her, and Leslie gave a nervous laugh.

“I know…It’s just…it’s very green. Should food be this green? Maybe we should look it up? We should go back to the office where there’s plenty of computers and look up why broccoli is so green? Let’s do that.”

Leslie tried to get up but Ben put his hand over hers. She was stalling trying to eat, because she really didn’t want to eat the vegetables, he could tell. And he wasn’t a monster. He wasn’t going to force her to eat them if she didn’t want to.

“Leslie, you don’t have to eat the vegetables if you don’t want to” Ben said kindly, and Leslie lowered back in her seat.

“Do you mean that?”

“Of course” Ben smiled at her. “I was pushing my luck really by trying to give you some, here, I’ll take them away.”

He picked up her plates and scraped the vegetables off onto his own plate. Removing the evidence that they were ever there.

“But I want you to eat the chicken, it’s really good, trust me” Ben said as he cut into his own food.

Leslie nodded profusely. “That I can do” she said, and started cutting her own chicken. She took a mouthful and moaned loudly, causing Ben to splutter and choke on his own food.

“Holy crap that’s good” Leslie said, her mouth still full, but her voice was low and almost sensual. “This is really good.”

“I’m glad you like it” Ben chuckled softly, recovering from the surprise moan.

He didn’t hear anything from Leslie until the chicken had disappeared from her plate completely; she leaned back in her seat, content and full.

“That was so good. You’re great at cooking, great in bed, is there anything you can’t do, Mr Wyatt?” Leslie grinned at him.

Ben finished his own plate and folded his hands together. “I’m pretty great” he joked, earning a smack on the arm from Leslie.

He stood up and offered her his hand. “I think we should go cuddle on the couch for a bit while the food goes down. Then we can participate in some after dinner activity?”

Leslie cackled loudly and took his hand. “I like the sound of that a lot.”


	88. Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie gets Braxton Hicks contractions.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you all so much for the comments and kudos so far! I am one kudos away from 100 so please don't forget to leave some!

Ben hurried into the bedroom, a glass of water in his hands and a frantic look on his face.

Leslie was lying on their bed on her side, her hands hugging her pregnant belly tightly and a pained expression on her face. She had been having Braxton Hicks contractions and they were starting to take its toll on her.

The first time it happened was about five weeks ago. Ben freaked out and drove her to the hospital, worried that she was going into early labour, but the doctors insisted that it was just Braxton Hicks and to go home and rest. Now they had come back again, and they knew how to deal with them. Leslie had been standing in the kitchen when the pain started so Ben took her upstairs to lie down and got her a glass of water to help. 

Leslie had said they felt like cramps, but a little more intense. Ben could only imagine how painful actual labour was going to be for her.

“How are you doing, honey?” Ben asked, running his fingers through her hair softly.

“I’m okay,” Leslie whispered, and her hand stretched out for the water. 

Ben placed the glass of water in her hand and she took a few sips. She handed it back to him and her palm went back to its position on her bump.

She was 30 weeks gone, and her pregnant belly was round and insanely big. So much so that Ben could no longer wrap his arms around her when he cuddled her from behind. He knew that in a few weeks she would be giving birth via c-section, but right now, he knew that she was desperate to get this over with.

“I don’t think I can do this anymore” she whimpered with a quiet sob. “If I can’t handle some Braxton Hicks then how am I supposed to go through labour? Some women don’t even feel these, why are they so bad?”

“Hey, it’s okay” Ben said soothingly, going back to running his fingers through her hair. “You’re doing great. You’ve totally got this, and it’s ok to cry over it. You’re carrying triplets; you have every right to be emotional. The doctors did say that the pain might be worse because there are three of them, but that’s fine. You’ve dealt with worse, you know you have.”

Leslie closed her eyes and nodded, letting Ben carry on stroking her hair and listening to him talk.

“You’ve been punched in the face, pounced on someone in a pile of garbage, broke your leg when you were eight. All those hurt like hell but this you can cope with, it’s going to be uncomfortable sure, but you are doing an amazing thing here, I couldn’t do it, even if I was a woman, I wouldn’t have the strength to do what you’re doing right now” Ben said, kissing her forehead lovingly.

Leslie giggled and sniffed back her tears, “Ann once did a cholesterol test on me and that hurt like a bitch.”

“See,” Ben said kindly. “This is a walk in the park. You can do this, Leslie. I have every faith in you.”

Leslie smiled and sat up a little, one hand rubbing her bump delicately. “I think I’m feeling better” she said, taking a deep breath in.

Ben helped her sit up and then pressed his lips against hers. Leslie sighed under his warm mouth and his hands cupped the back of her neck.

“How about I run you a warm bath. That should help get rid of any aches and pains” Ben suggested.

Leslie nodded. “That sounds great. Thank you for being such a wonderful baby daddy.”

“For you, anything” Ben said, giving Leslie his trademark smirk as he walked out to the bathroom.


	89. Through the Fire

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie and Ben before the trial.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eleven chapters left!! I'm so close to the end now!
> 
> This is a bit of an extended scene from the episode 'The Trial of Leslie Knope' when Ben gives her the Lil Sebastian toy. I hope you enjoy!

Leslie clutched the Lil Sebastian toy to her chest as she watched Ben walk towards the exit to the City Hall chambers. She had been sat in here for a good few hours alone in contemplation, she wanted the silence and solitude, but as she watched Ben leave, her mind did a u-turn.

“Ben?” She called, and he turned around.

“Stay with me for a bit longer?”

Ben cocked his head to the side. “You just told me to go?”

“I know, but I don’t want to be alone anymore, can you sit with us for a bit?” She asked hopefully, holding the Lil Sebastian toy up.

Ben chuckled and gave a nod. He walked back over, pulling the chair back to her side, taking her hands in his and kissing them both twice.

“It’s going to be ok” Ben said again. “I promise.”

Leslie exhaled and squeezed his hands. “I hope so, I really hope so.”

She didn’t want to think about what was going to happen. She knew that she might get fired, or Ben would get fired, or they both would. But it was the small price to pay if that meant getting to be with Ben.

Her thoughts warping out of control, she soon found herself vacating her seat and climbing into Ben’s lap, pressing her lips against his soundly. Ben wrapped his arms around her, reciprocating.

The pair stayed like this for a good ten minutes. Kissing every piece of uncovered skin that they could find, forgetting that there were security cameras around, probably getting an eyeful right now as Ben palmed Leslie’s right breast, causing her to moan softly into his mouth, allowing his tongue to snake in, tangling up against her own.

This was why she was going through this stupid trial today, because of this wondrous feeling she got in her lower stomach every time she and Ben kissed. She craved him, and would never be able to live without it again.

Ben slowly pulled away and cupped Leslie’s face with his large hands, wiping away tears that Leslie hadn’t realised started falling. She hated this feeling of impending punishment, she hated getting told off and punished, but in Ben’s arms right now, it didn’t matter, she’d risk it all again.

She giggled, and Ben furrowed his brow. “What’s so funny?”

“Nothing…I was just thinking of this song my Mom used to play all the time” Leslie said, and cleared her throat.

_“Through the fire, to the limit, to the wall, for a chance to be with you, I’d gladly risk it all”_ Leslie sung quietly, and Ben chuckled, swaying gently to the soft musical rhythm she created.

“That’s our theme song” Ben whispered, kissing her neck.

“For today at least” Leslie replied, nuzzling into his touch.


	90. Triangle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben after meeting Dave for the first time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really struggled with this one, nothing just seemed to flow, until supervanillabear31 came to my rescue! Thanks for the help!!

“You know you are the only one, right?” Leslie asked as she slid into bed next to Ben.

He looked up at her. “Hmm?”

“You’re the only one I’d ever want” Leslie said again. “Any guy can turn up and confess their love for me and I’d pick you, always.”

Ben smiled softly. “Thanks, I needed that.”

Tonight had been rough on him. For starters, going to a romantic restaurant with your girlfriend’s ex wasn’t exactly great, then he told Leslie that he was still in love with her and then handcuffed him to a toilet.

Oh yeah, because he was a cop, and cops can apparently just handcuff people to urinals.

Leslie had made her feelings about Dave quite clear, telling him that she was no longer interested, and that she had Ben. But she didn’t have to, she could have easily ran off with him that night, she’d have the support and endorsement from the police chief, and that would be that.

But she didn’t, she was here next to him, cuddled up to him and wearing a tank top and light blue panties, it was fucking adorable.

And she picked him.

“I was really worried back there, I thought this was going to turn into a messy love triangle situation” Ben admitted, and Leslie giggled.

“No way” she sat up and ran her fingers down the side of Ben’s cheek. “I like Dave, he’s a good guy, but I love you, and last time I checked love beats like.”

Ben smirked and looked down at his hand, there was still a small red ring around his wrist from the handcuff. 

She chose him.

“I love you too,” Ben whispered, leaning in and kissing her. She tasted like red wine and there was a soft smell of vanilla that lingered. She was perfect.

And she picked him.

Ben still couldn’t quite like that sink in.

He’d never forget this night for as long as he lived for many reasons. The whole cop debacle wasn’t exactly fun, but having Leslie crawl on top of him, showing him how much she loved him and would always choose him made everything bearable.


	91. Drowning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben explains what sadness baths are.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only 9 more chapters to go! I hope you enjoy this one!

It had been two days since the trial, two days since Ben’s unemployment started and two days since Leslie’s suspension started.

However, none of that mattered, because they were back together again. They could hold hands and kiss in public. They could go on dates and share desserts with each other, sure it wasn’t an ideal situation with her campaign in trouble and Ben without a job, but they’d figure that out soon. She was sure of it.

They were in Ben’s room at his place, April and Andy were in the lounge watching something on TV, although she was pretty sure she could hear Andy snoring. She pulled off her pants, leaving her in a pair of silky blue panties and a tank top and she curled into bed next to Ben.

“Can I ask you something?” Leslie asked as she drew patterns on Ben’s bare chest.

“Shoot” Ben replied, he was reading a Batman comic, one of the many _‘I’m sorry you resigned in disgrace but I’m really happy we’re together again’_ presents from Leslie.

“What’s a sadness bath?”

Ben frowned and lowered the comic. “A what?”

“A sadness bath” Leslie repeated, sitting up so she could look at his face. “The day of the Model UN after we argued, April said that you take sadness baths.”

Ben paused for a moment, and then chuckled softly. “Oh, I know what she means. She called them sadness baths?” he asked, raising his eyebrow and Leslie nodded.

“Apparently you made her late for stuff.”

Ben chuckled again, placing the comic on the side and wrapping his arms around Leslie, pulling her into his chest.

“Alright. Well after we broke up I never really knew what to do with myself, so I guess I just found myself taking baths to try and clear my head. I mean, it never worked, I just found myself thinking about you and that just made me miserable. So I just used to sit in the tub, thinking of you, being miserable for like a good hour I guess” Ben explained. 

“It was weird, I always kind of thought it was like drowning, I just used to sit there and feel like I couldn’t breath, because I really wanted to be with you, but knew that I couldn’t, and that hurt” Ben mumbled, looking straight ahead.

Leslie listened, tears brimming in her eyes and she nuzzled into his chest, blinking them away. “I’m sorry I made you feel that way.”

“Hey, don’t be” Ben quickly said, lifting her chin so that her eyes met his. “I just missed you, and I wanted to be with you. So sometimes I’d take a bath to try and drown those feelings, but it never worked because deep down I realised that I couldn’t live without you.”

He ran a hand through her hair. “But now, we’re back together, and I couldn’t be happier.”

He reached down and kissed her, nibbling gently at her bottom lip causing Leslie to squirm and moan under his touch. 

“I love you,” she said as they pulled apart.

“I love you too” Ben replied, placing kisses on her forehead, cheeks, hairline, anywhere he could find.

“Plus, now that we are back together I can still take baths, only this time they will be with you, and they can be happiness baths” Ben smirked at her, and Leslie threw her head back, cackling loudly.

“Hey! Keep it down! Andy’s sleeping!” They heard April screeched from the living room.

Leslie clasped a hand over her mouth to try and stifle her giggles, and Ben couldn’t help but laugh along with her. 

How he had missed these moments.


	92. All That I Have

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben contemplates staying in DC or going back to Pawnee.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eight chapters left!! I hope you all enjoy and don't forget to comment and kudos!

The disappointment in her voice nearly killed him.

Leslie’s voice still echoed in his mind, he could hear every syllable clearly, the tone of her voice telling him that she missed him and wanted him to come back.

But her words told him to stay and take on the campaign in Florida. 

Ben stood up and pulled another beer out of the fridge in his office; peeved that Jen had made off with his half drunken bottle and popped it open.

It was true, he loved managing campaigns. Running Leslie’s City Council campaign ignited a new fire in him and the want to win and do well took over. He won that campaign, and went to Washington and won another campaign.

Of course he had a lot of assistance from Jen, but still, he loved the power he had, and felt happy doing it.

But he never would have found this job if it weren’t for Leslie, of course none of this wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Leslie. If she didn’t tell him how much she loved him that night in Pawnee, he never would be living the dream in Washington, he’d be God knows where slashing budgets like before. Living a mundane life.

Now he had opportunities, this was the first time since Ice Town that people had let him manage a high profile case and trusted him with it, and it felt fucking amazing to show everyone what he was truly made of.

He also had love. He had this beautiful, amazing, goofy Leslie Knope back in Pawnee, working on the City Council and fighting to make Pawnee a better place, she was his better half, and always would be.

But not for much longer if he decided to take this job.

Long distance was tough, and they just about managed to stick it out this long with the promise that Ben would be home after four months. What kind of asshole would he be if he went back on his promise?

He looked at the picture frame on his desk, which contained a photo of Leslie. She looked so happy in it, and he realised how much he missed her smile, and her laugh.

He was miserable before he met her, a broken man from a broken home. Now he woke up in the mornings with a reason to smile, all because a certain someone saved him, she was all he had.

And he couldn’t throw that away, he had to go back.

In an instant he had booked tickets back to Pawnee, he’d fly out tomorrow morning at 7:30. He drained the last few dregs of his beer and tossed the bottle into the garbage.

Ben grabbed his jacket and pulled it on, he glanced at the clock in the corner of his office, it had only just passed 8 in the evening, some stores would still be open at this time, especially in DC.

He took one last look at the picture of Leslie and smiled, in a few hours he’d be back in her arms, kissing her, feeling her touch.

But right now he had an engagement ring to buy.


	93. Give Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben plays with the triplets

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only seven more left! I can't believe I'm almost over with this!
> 
> Don't forget to comment/kudos!

“Ah. The dreaded triplet trio” Ben growled, hands on his hips and scowling at the three children in front of him. “You are no match for me, the evil Dr Pillowbrain. I’m going to make all children of the world sleep for twenty hours of the day!”

Stephen jumped forward, grabbing hold of Ben’s right leg and swinging off it. “No! I’m going to stop you Dr Pillowbrain! We will never go to sleep!”

Stephen was currently dressed as Superman, and it was pretty adorable, Wesley had donned his Spiderman costumes, and Sonia was dressed as Batman. Ben made the mistake of calling her Batgirl and she got very insulted, claiming that she was Batman.

Wesley latched on to Ben’s other leg. “Dr Pillowbrain is evil!” He shouted, pretending to hit Ben’s leg.

Ben let out an evil laugh and tried to swing the boys off. “Nice try, but I can still use my arms.”

“That’s what you think!” Sonia cried, leaping forward, right into Ben’s arms, he hugged her to his chest for a brief second and the tossed her tiny body lightly onto the couch, she fell with a bounce and giggled loudly.

“Give up!” Ben boomed at the triplets, but Sonia was back on her feet, and had pounced on Ben’s back.

“Dr Pillowbrain is evil because he hasn’t had any kisses in his life. He needs kisses!” Sonia announced, and began kissing Ben’s cheek, soon Stephen and Wesley joined in, kissing the tops of his knees.

“NO!” Ben wailed. “Not kisses! I hate all kinds of love! It’s my only weakness! Nooo!”

He dramatically fell to the ground, and Sonia, Wesley and Stephen immediately piled on top of him, screaming and celebrating that they defeated the evil Dr Pillowbrain.

Leslie had been watching from the kitchen the entire time. She had been making dinner, usually Ben cooked most nights, but he had been so busy with his campaign for congress that Leslie decided to give him the night off, and it also gave him the chance to act like a goofball with their babies.

It was also a blessing for her because she was now in control of how many vegetables would be present at dinner tonight, there would be enough for the triplets, but none for her. 

“Curse you, triplet trio!” Ben growled from the ground. “You win this round!”

He was cut off by Wesley snuggling into his neck, and Ben chuckled.

Leslie decided that this was all too much, and she needed a photo of this immediately. She grabbed her phone and walked over to the pile on the floor.

“Triplet trio, congratulations on your victory! We need your photo for the town’s newspaper, please,” Leslie said, pretending to be a reporter. “Big smiles now!”

She was greeted with four smiling faces, even Ben had to join in, she snapped a couple of photos and then changed her phone background to one of the pictures.

“Come on kids, dinner will be ready soon” she said, and the triplets bounded off Ben’s chest. 

Leslie reached down and helped Ben to his feet; he rubbed his hip and groaned. “God, I’m getting old,” he mumbled.

“Don’t go soft on me yet, Wyatt” Leslie chided. “That was hands down the cutest and sexiest thing I have ever seen and once the triplets go to bed I think Dr Pillowbrain and Madame Mattressface should plan their next evil scheme.”

Ben raised an eyebrow, “Madame Mattressface?”

“I’ll come up with a better supervillain name later” Leslie smirked.


	94. Last Hope

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie and Ben need a sitter for the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only 6 more chapters to go! Almost at the end! 
> 
> Don't forget to comment/kudos.

Ben drummed his fingers on the side as the phone’s dial tone beeped in his ear, silently praying that the phone would answer. 

The triplet were being wonderful, holy terrors, and he and Leslie had been planning a date night for weeks now. A date night with the kids away for the night and they’d have wine, dessert and sex, so much sex.

Only for Roz to come down with the flu two days ago, they had hoped that she would be well enough to come over, but as the days ticked on, it looked like she was going to be out of action for a good week.

Leslie nearly cried when Ben told her, and they called Marlene immediately in hopes that she’d be able to babysit. Typically Marlene was out of town with her new boyfriend for a weekend away of her own.

Next on the list and last would be April and Andy. They usually passed up days to babysit, but that was when work was involved. Not on a Friday night. Andy would probably be out drinking and April usually joined him, so their answer was probably going to be a no too.

And he and Leslie would have to go another good two weeks without any action.

“What do you want?”

 _‘Finally’_ Ben thought as April finally answered, he pressed the phone closer to his ear.

“April! Thank God, what are you doing tonight? Can you babysit the triplets?” Ben said in a huge rush.

“Why? What’s got you all needy and desperate” April chided back.

“Leslie and I were supposed to have a date night and the sitter got sick, no one else can babysit and we really need this night away from the kids, I mean we love them but we just need them gone for the night” Ben said down the phone.

“Ew” April hissed. “I’m not taking your kids because you want to go and have sex, that’s weird.”

“Trust me, when you have kids you will understand” Ben mumbled, pinching the bridge of his nose. “Please, April. I’m begging you, you’re my last hope.”

He heard April sigh and pull the phone away from her ear. “Hey, Andy. Is it cool if the triplets come and stay the night with us so that Ben and Leslie can bone?”

“Yeah that’s cool, babe” He heard Andy reply, and then sing ‘they make love, beautiful love’ at the top of his voice.

“Good Lord” Ben groaned. “Thanks, April. We really appreciate it.”

“I’m not done, that will be $200 for a late fee, plus we’re gonna want pizza for dinner so that’s an extra $50 plus snacks, so in total that’s $500 for the night” April said, and Ben could practically see her evil little face grinning at him.

He was so desperate he agreed, and April soon came over to collect the triplets and her money.

Ben paid her and handed over three small rucksacks with all their supplies inside. April picked up Stephen who was begging for a cuddle, she was his favourite, and Wesley and Sonia gathered around her hip.

Leslie had sent them downstairs after she had given them plenty of kisses and cuddles to last them for the evening.

“Okay, kids, be good for Auntie April and Uncle Andy, and we’ll see you tomorrow morning” Ben said, kissing each of his babies.

“And thank you, April, seriously, thank you” Ben said again to the young woman.

“It’s fine” April shrugged. “Also FYI, it’s totally not my problem if we keep the triplets up all night by giving them 30 bags of marshmallows, so good luck with that.”

Before Ben could reply she had bent down and was smiling at the triplets. “Alright monsters, let’s get out of here, Uncle Andy is super excited to see you.”

The triplets cheered excitedly and followed April out to her car. Ben waved goodbye and closed the door with a sigh of relief. Thank god for that.

“Are they gone?” Leslie asked, hurrying down the stairs wearing a beautiful dark purple dress.

“Just left” Ben said, pushing himself off the doorframe.

“Thank god” Leslie breathed, and grabbed Ben by the lapel of his jacket, their lips smashing together.

“Do we have time before the reservation?” Leslie gasped out, raising her eyebrows.

Ben smirked. “Why do you think I asked April to pick them up so early?” 

Leslie squealed with delight as Ben scooped her into his arms and carried her up the stairs.


	95. Advertisement

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben gets a strange email at work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! Only five left! By the end of the week I should be done with this story!
> 
> Don't forget to comment and kudos!

_“Wanted: The world’s most perfect butt.”_

_“Do you have a perfect, delectable butt? Has your wife ever told you that you ass looks like it could hang in the Sistine Chapel? If so then we are looking for you!"_

_"Come up to the third floor for a sexy surprise.”_

Ben blinked and re-red the email three times. He had been sending an email to Drew Bailey in City Planning when a message popped up from an unknown sender.

Of course he knew exactly who the unknown sender was, and she was terrible at being sneaky.

Of course it had to be Leslie. This had her doing all over it, and despite hiding her email address it wouldn’t be good if City Hall’s emails were hacked and that was found. In fact it would be incredibly embarrassing. 

He rolled his eyes and quickly sent the email to Drew planning a meeting next Tuesday, and locked his computer.

A quick elevator ride later and he was striding into Leslie’s office, she smirked when she saw him walk in and close the door.

“Hello” she said, nonchalantly. “Are you here to answer the ad?”

“A perfect, delectable butt?” Ben repeated, raising his eyebrows. “What are you doing? You know you can’t send emails like that at work.”

Leslie bit her lower lip and shrugged. “I know, but I learned this neat little trick that hides your email, so it comes up as anonymous, so I thought I’d send you little surprise.”

Ben leaned against the doorframe. “You mentioned a sexy surprise? Where is it?”

Leslie grinned and wiggled slightly, soon she had her panties in her hands and was tossing them over her shoulder, causing Ben’s eyes to almost bulge out of his head.

“Good lord” he hissed as he spun around, closing the office door and locking it. “What are you doing?”

“Oh come on, lighten up a little. I’m horny, and we hardly do it anymore since the triplets came along. The office is soundproof and once you lock the door no one will bother me. We’ve got at least half an hour to get stuff done” Leslie whined, her lower lip jutting out.

Ben sighed. She was right, since the triplets came along their lives had been chaotic and sex was usually the last thing they both thought about. Now that they were a bit older and Marlene would take them since she was now retired, Leslie and Ben had gone back to work…where they could apparently bone.

“If you really don’t want to we can wait” Leslie sighed, reaching over to pick her panties up from the floor. “It would just be nice for things to be like how they used to be, y’know when we used to have quickies in the supply closest.”

Ben grinned at the memory. Several times he had her in a supply closest on the second floor, at least four times when they were secretly dating and once or twice when her pregnancy hormones skyrocketed and she couldn’t take it any longer.

Ben looked around the office and nodded. “I don’t know, supply closets were great, but we have this big office now, and it’s soundproof too. That’s a nice touch.”

Leslie’s lips curved into a cheeky smile. “Very soundproof, I can be as loud as I like in here.”

That animalistic urge in Ben went into overdrive, and he sprung forward, pushing Leslie paperwork to the ground and pulling her up onto the desk. “I like it when you are loud” he growled, biting her bottom lip.

Leslie moaned softly. “I know you do, babe.”

After that, there was nothing soft about the noises that came out of her mouth.


	96. In The Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie and Ben are stuck in Washington

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only 4 more to go!

“Make sure you are being good for Grandma” Leslie said down the phone, her heart twisting uncomfortably as she spoke.

“We are” Sonia replied. “She’s making us mac and cheese tonight…without the broccoli.” She said that in such a manner that Leslie was sure that her eight-year-old daughter was raising an eyebrow at her down the phone.

“I wouldn’t be so sure about that, where do you think I got that recipe from?” Leslie chortled. “Just remember to brush your teeth before bed and make sure your brothers do the same.”

“I will. When are you coming home?” Sonia asked, and Leslie’s heart contorted again.

“Soon, I hope. As soon as this storm passes your father and I will be on the first flight back. I’ll keep you all updated, ok?” Leslie said to her daughter.

“Ok. I miss you” Sonia mumbled, and Leslie swiped at the tears that were falling down her face.

“I miss you too, Sonny” Leslie replied. “I’ll talk to you later, promise. I love you”

“Ok, Mom. I love you” Sonia said before hanging up.

Leslie took a deep breath in to try and soothe the tears, but they were falling fast down her cheeks. She and Ben had taken a few days in D.C on their own for a Congressional event, where she also debuted as Indiana’s most recently elected Governor.

They were meant to have been gone for a day, and now they were stuck in D.C thanks to a freak storm. The rain pelted down loudly and thunder cracked in the background. They were going nowhere any time soon.

She walked back into the lounge where Ben was staring at his laptop screen and drumming his fingers on the side.

“No luck tonight, babe” Ben sighed, closing the laptop lid. “Nothing’s flying out until the storm passes, they reckon the first flight will be midday tomorrow.”

Leslie’s lower lip wobbled. “Can we drive back? It won’t take too long right? Or we could borrow Air Force One? I could call Joe and-”  
“Joe isn’t Vice President anymore, he can’t help us” Ben reminded her, and Leslie’s arms dropped to her side. “Besides, the storm is that bad I doubt Air Force One will be flying anyway. We’ll just stay one more night here, and we’ll be back in Pawnee tomorrow.”

More tears poured out of Leslie’s eyes and Ben immediately got up, wrapping his arms around his wife and kissing the top of her head. “Hey, come on, don’t get upset, it’s only one more night without them.”

“I know” Leslie mumbled, letting Ben wipe her tears away. “I just miss them. We were supposed to be back in Pawnee already, and I feel like we’re letting them down.”

“No we’re not. We can’t control the weather, they understand and I bet they are having a great time with Marlene, she’s probably spoiling them rotten” Ben grinned, and Leslie chuckled.

“I guess so” Leslie sighed. “I just miss our family that’s all.”

“I know you do” Ben said, placing a kiss on her lips. “Midday tomorrow, can you hang in there?”

“I’ll try” Leslie said, wiping away the last of her tears on the back of her hand.

“Besides. It’s not all bad news, we get another kid-free night, we can drink wine and make out without any interruptions. Does that sound good?” Ben asked, his arms still wrapped around Leslie’s waist.

Leslie hummed quietly and then nodded. “I guess it does mean we can have sex without being quiet.”

“See! It’s already getting better” Ben smiled at his wife and pulled away. “You said the kids were having mac and cheese tonight? How about we have that but in pizza form?”

Leslie giggled. “You know I love your mac and cheese pizza.”

Ben grinned as he made his way to the kitchen. “It’s the cure for everything!”

Leslie smiled sadly; she took one last look at the picture frame on the coffee table. A picture of her, Ben and the triplets, all smiling at the camera.

She picked it up and placed a kiss on the frame, then followed Ben into the kitchen to help him prepare their dinner.


	97. Safety First

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ben baby proofs the house.

Leslie was humming a lullaby to Stephen as she rocked him in her arms. The babies came home from hospital a few days ago, which led to many sleepless nights. Leslie was used to sleeping only a few hours a night anyway, but now so more than ever she craved those moments where she could just curl up in her bed and sleep.

Stephen was a little cranky today, and needed extra cuddles before being put down to nap, every time Leslie tried to lay him down he would start to cry again, and she’d scoop him back up into her arms to stop him from waking his siblings.

Her eyes were drooping, and she prayed that Stephen would fall asleep too, but he was still staring back at her wide eyed, showing no signs of sleep.

Leslie sighed. He must have inherited her sleeping habits. And the more she thought about it she was sure that Stephen was the baby kicking her bladder in the middle of the night when she was pregnant. It made sense now, Stephen didn’t like sleep.

There was a soft banging downstairs and Leslie’s eyes snapped open again. Knowing that Ben was downstairs, she adjusted Stephen in her arms and walked downstairs.

Sure enough she found Ben at the bottom of the stairs fixing a child safety gate to the bannisters.

“Ben? What are you doing?” Leslie asked, taking the steps slowly. Ben looked up at her, his eyes were bloodshot and there were dark bags around his eyes.

“We need to baby proof,” he said. “The triplets will be walking before we know it, I mean think how fast your pregnancy went.”

Leslie wrinkled her nose. Her pregnancy most certainly did not go fast to her. 

“The babies need to be protected, so we need to get this fixed on now. Safety first” Ben babbled, and went back to fixing the gate into place.

Leslie sighed loudly. “Ben, look at me.”

Ben stopped working again and looked up at her with a frown.

“You’re tired. Go take a nap” Leslie said kindly.

“But the gate-”

“Can wait” Leslie cut in. “Look, two out of three are down for a nap, I’m just trying to get Stephen off and I’m going to lie down too. But you are freaking out for nothing. The triplets can’t even hold their heads up yet, they were born two weeks ago, remember. They aren’t going to be walking for a good seven months or so. We have time to get this sorted.”

Ben looked down at the gate, he had barely fixed it on so he tugged it out of the staircase and placed it against the wall. “A nap does sound pretty good right now.”

Leslie grinned. “And as soon as Mr ‘I’m not going to go to sleep today’ finally gives in, I’ll be there to join you” she cooed at Stephen.

Ben stretched his arms out, taking Stephen from Leslie and bouncing him up and down.

“Hey, Stevie. Do you think you can let me and your mommy take a nap? We really need it so that we can take care of you guys. Can you do us a favour, buddy?” Ben said to the infant.

As if by magic, Stephen’s eyes finally started fluttered, and Leslie breathed a sigh of relief.

“Oh thank god,” she whispered as Stephen finally fell asleep. “You have the magic touch, Wyatt.”

Ben smirked. “I’m the baby whisperer.”

He and Leslie slowly walked back up the stairs and tucked Stephen into his crib. He didn’t stir or fuss and they both crept into their bedroom and flopped onto the mattress.

They didn’t bother changing, they just needed to sleep. Leslie curled up against Ben’s side and he kissed her forehead sweetly.

“Sleep tight, Benjamin” Leslie murmured and Ben grinned softly.

“You too, Lesliemin.”


	98. Puzzle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie and Ben do a puzzle together.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Two more to go! This story will be over come Monday evening! 
> 
> Comments and Kudos make me so happy! So don't forget to leave them!

“People actually do this for fun?” Leslie asked as she slotted a puzzle piece into place.

“They do, it’s supposed to be relaxing, which is what you are meant to be doing right now,” Ben said sternly.

Leslie glared at Ben and rummaged in the pile of puzzle pieces to find another piece of the blue sky that she was piecing together. This was plan number 5 of Ben’s attempts to get Leslie to relax during her pregnancy and distract her from work.

All of his attempts at trying to get a six month pregnant Leslie to relax had failed miserably, but he was determined to get his wife to engage in a hobby that would be stress-free for both of them.

So far, watching movies usually ended with Leslie falling asleep half way through, and then jolting awake at a loud part of the movie and accidentally hitting a poor, unsuspecting Ben. She had started making quilts again which started off well, but then Ben soon found that there were ten new quilts with nowhere for them to go, they were supposed to be making room for the babies, not crowding their house with more stuff.

Then there was baking, which didn’t go well because Leslie would eat most of the cake batter before cooking it, and then there was knitting, which Leslie ended up throwing away the needles and wool after failing an attempt at knitting a woollen hat. 

So now Ben tried puzzles, it was stress free, and he could keep an eye on her. Plus he didn’t mind a good puzzle or two. He had found one of the Golden Gate Bridge, which reminded them of their trip to San Francisco. 

“This is fun,” Ben reminded her. “And so relaxing, I feel pretty relaxed right now, don’t you?”

Leslie sighed. “Yeah, sure. Super relaxed.”

She leaned back into the chair, rubbing her belly and wincing. “I need to go to the bathroom, can you help me up?”

Ben quickly stood up and hurried around to her side of the table, he counted to three and helped Leslie onto her feet. She wobbled to the side and Ben kept a steady hand on her hip to help her.

“I won’t be long” she called as she waddled to the downstairs bathroom, since going upstairs would take far too long for her.

Ben looked back at the jigsaw puzzle. They had gotten pretty far already, he wasn’t sure if Leslie was rushing so she could do something else or if she was just really good at puzzles.

He was glad that they could do things like this; he was hoping that this was helping her relax, because it was doing wonders for him. He hadn’t thought once during the puzzle about three impending college funds to save for and how in a few months there will be three babies to take care of.

This puzzle was like his sham-wow. 

He frowned. Leslie had been in the bathroom for a while now and he hadn’t heard anything. Usually she’d call him to help her up from the toilet seat. But he hadn’t so much heard a flush of the toilet.

He anxiously made his way towards the door. “Babe? Is everything ok?”

There was no response, which made Ben nervous. He pushed the door open and gasped at the sight before him.

Leslie was sat on the toilet with a work binder open and resting on her belly. 

She looked up at him with a panicked expression on her face. “It’s not what it looks like!”

“Oh really?” Ben smirked at her. “Because it looks like to me you suck off to do some work on the can.”

Leslie blushed and Ben took the binder away from her, reminding himself to add it to the hiding place in their bedroom where he currently had all her other binders stashed away.

“Come on, Knope. No more work. You know that” Ben said, offering her his hands to help her stand again.

“No wait, I actually do need to pee. I thought of a really good idea for when I go back to work so wanted to write it down” Leslie explained.

Ben sighed. “Alright, but we have an unfinished Golden Gate Bridge out there, so you’re going to pee and we’ll finish that puzzle, and then we’re going to sit down on the coach and watch a movie, got it?”

Leslie rolled her eyes. “Fine. Close the door please.”

Ben grinned. “Nope, no way. I don’t trust you anymore. You’re peeing with me in the room so I can make sure you don’t get another work binder out.”

Leslie growled angrily and shimmied down her maternity leggings. “Fine” she hissed and scowled at him.


	99. Solitude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Leslie waits for Ben at the smallest park.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just one chapter left! Please don't forget to comment and kudos.

Waiting sucked.

Leslie hated it. She was never patient in the first place, but tonight made her even more impatient that usual.

Her leg bounced up and down in the cold November air, trying not to think about it, trying not to think about the fact that Ben might not show up tonight.

She had left him one voicemail, one measly voicemail asking him politely to come and meet her to talk about everything once and for all at the smallest park.

Her thoughts travelled to the smallest park and she ran her hands along the white bench that she was sitting on. It was a great project, and it looked beautiful in the dark moonlight. In any circumstance she would be celebrating it, cracking opening a bottle of champagne and toasting a glass to everyone that made this project possible.

Only that’s not how the grand opening went, because she tried so hard to spend time with Ben that he ended up getting incredibly annoyed at her, and announced the park open without any celebration, just so that he didn’t have to work with her again.

She was a steamroller, she knew that now. It took a while, but finally Ann made her see the truth, that she needed to stop and take into consideration other peoples feelings, not just her own.

But she just loved Ben so much, the thought of not having him in her life just a little hurt, but if he wanted to get up and out of her life, she wasn’t going to stop him.

No matter how much it hurt her.

She looked up at the dark street, she had asked him to meet her here at 8:30, he was ten minutes late already. She wouldn’t give in right away; she was adamant that she was going to stay here for a good hour just in case he did turn up.

Then again, she’d wait here for a year if it meant seeing him again.

She took a deep breath, trying to savour these few moments of solitude to gather her thoughts together. But her heart still beat out the sound of his name, and deep down she prayed that he would turn up.

She closed her eyes briefly, and took a deep breath. Trying to prepare herself for the worse.

Then, out of nowhere, he was there, walking towards her with his hands stuffed in his pockets.

Leslie didn’t know how to react, she almost leapt up and started screaming at him about being late, but no, she couldn’t do that, she had to be calm and not so intense.

Instead, she waited until his feet crossed the grass of the smallest park, and she gave him a soft smile.

“I wasn’t sure you were going to come.”


	100. Relaxation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow. I've finally finished this! I can't believe that I've finally come around to it!
> 
> I started this story in August and some seven months later I've finished! I just wanted to take the time to say a huge thank you to everyone who read, kudosed or commented on this story. You all gave me the drive and determination to finish this and for that I am forever grateful! 
> 
> I also want to single out a special supervanillabear31 who commented on practically every chapter, and would help when I was stuck on certain chapters. I really couldn't have gotten this far without you!
> 
> And without further ado - the last chapter! AKA Leslie and Ben's lazy Sunday.

Ben shifted and grunted as the sunlight hit his face, the warmth bringing him out of sleep.

He rolled over and came face to face with Leslie who was leaning on her arm and smiling softly at him; of course she was already awake. Every morning since the first night they had spent together she had woken up before him.

“Good morning” he murmured to her.

“Morning” she replied, moving her arm away and moving closer to Ben, their lips meetings and their shared the first kiss of many that morning.

That chatted for a while, asking how each other slept and Leslie told him about the funny dream she had where Tom and Jean-Ralphio started a boyband together. 

Soon they were both wrapped up in each other’s arms and kissing again. Soft, gentle kisses soon turned into open-mouthed sloppy kisses, and hands roamed up and down their bodies.

“They’ll be in here soon” Leslie mumbled and Ben groaned, pulling away, knowing that it was just a matter of time before they were interrupted.

Sure enough, there was the sound of soft pads on the floor, and the door pushed open, revealing three child-sized blurs that barrelled towards the bed.

“It’s the monsters!” Leslie cried as Sonia, Stephen and Wesley bolted towards them.

There were three cries of ‘Mommy’ and ‘Daddy’ as the triplets piled onto the bed and bounced around excitedly. Sonia had bought a stuffed elephant with her and cuddled it to her chest as she snuggled into Ben, Stephen jumped up and down and gabbled excitedly about what they were going to do today and Wesley got underneath the covers in between his parents.

They stayed like this for a while, listening to animated stories from their triplets, until they started to get restless and Ben thought that they better move on to their next lazy Sunday activity.

“Alright, kids. Who wants JJ’s?” Ben asked, and there were four excited cheers, one coming from Leslie.

Ben chuckled and kissed Sonia’s forehead. “Okay, let’s get dressed then.”

Just like that the triplets were out of the bed and hurrying back to their bedroom. Leslie leaned over and kissed Ben again, and he playfully slapped her butt as she climbed out of bed to get dressed.

~~

It was the same very Sunday. The family of five would drive down to JJ’s and sit in the same booth for breakfast. Leslie and Ben would sit next to each other while the triplets squashed next to each other on the opposite side. JJ always provided them with crayons and paper so that they could draw and occupy themselves.

Leslie grinned when their food arrived, two plates filled with waffles, one for her and one for Stephen, a plate of pancakes with a chocolate syrup smile for Sonia and Wesley, and egg whites for Ben. They always ordered the exact same thing, every time they came here for breakfast.

Stephen was just like her; he got waffles every time and always asked for extra whipped cream. He’d giggle as JJ came over and squirted whipped cream all over his waffles and then some onto the tip of his nose. 

Sometimes Sonia would get jealous of Stephen’s waffles, and insist that she would have them the next time, but Sunday always rolled around and she always craved pancakes with chocolate sauce. Leslie was sure that one day she’d have waffles and never go back, but right now she was content with watching her daughter smile up at her, her teeth and lips stained with chocolate.

Wesley was also happy with his pancakes, but he always asked to try some of Ben’s egg whites and hummed with pleasure when Ben fed him a mouthful of eggs. Ben always suggested that he ordered scrambled eggs instead, but, like Sonia, he wasn’t swayed that easily.

Leslie and Ben exchanged loving glances as they watched their babies dig into their food and knock back orange juice like it was going out of fashion. 

Breakfast was always a success in the Knope-Wyatt household.

~~

“‘We’re all your friends’, said Mr Bacon, welcome home.’” Ben read aloud from their copy of Groffle, the awful Waffle. He was sat up against the headboard of Sonia’s bed, with the triplets cuddled around him hanging onto his every word.

Leslie watched from the doorway as Ben read the bedtime story to the triplets. She loved how he gave voices to all the characters. The triplets would giggle at his low, gruff voice for Groffle, and the occasional oink he would throw in when he voiced Mr Bacon.

“The end” Ben said, placing the book onto the side and nudging the triplets. “Bedtime, you guys.”

Stephen and Wesley climbed off of Sonia’s bed, rubbing their eyes and clambering into their own. They had talked about moving the boys into their own room at some point, but for the moment they all seemed pretty happy sharing a room.

Leslie walked in and joined Ben in wishing their monsters each a good night. They kissed Wesley first and promised him that they would leave the hallway light on for him. Then they kissed Stephen, reminding him to go straight to sleep, finally they got to Sonia, and made sure she was tucked in tightly, with all of her stuffed animals around her.

“Goodnight, monsters” Leslie whispered softly, and three ‘goodnights’ chimed back at her.

She gently closed the door, and smiled at Ben, now that the hard part was over, they could start their grown-up nightly routine, which usually consisted of wine and making out.

~~

“I shouldn’t have had that third glass,” Ben mumbled as he staggered wearily towards the bed. “I think I’ll be hungover tomorrow.”

Leslie snorted and handed him a glass of water. “The triplets have made us both lightweights.”

Ben accepted the water with a nod. “They sure did, but I love them. I really couldn’t imagine my life without them.”

“Neither could I” Leslie said as she snuggled into Ben’s side once he had placed the water back on the side.

He turned to face her, and peppered kisses all over her face and ran his hands along her sides. 

“You are wonderful, do you know that?” Ben whispered as he moved his arms up and cupped her face.

Leslie grinned. “You’re drunk, Wyatt.”

“Am not” Ben retorted. “I’m just super in love with you.”

Leslie moved in closer and their lips touched, sparks exploded around her body and she pressed up against Ben’s chest, feeling and hearing the groan rumble from his chest.

Days like this were just like heaven. Days where the triplets were angels, days where the waffles just tasted that little bit better than usual.

Then again, every day she woke up with Ben by her side was going to be a good day. 

Leslie couldn’t remember what mornings were like when she woke up without him by her side. Mornings where she didn’t know him were in the back of her mind, and the mornings where they were broken up were too painful to be remembered. She was for the here and now, and wouldn’t change a thing.

Everything about their lives was a chaotic perfect.

She pulled away with a gentle smile. “I love you and I like you.”

Ben smiled back. “I love you and I like you.”


End file.
